Area students prepare for state robotics competition

A decade ago Kristoff Auserdau was just a math teacher. He later jumped into teaching computer science classes, but in the last three years, his job has changed significantly.

Auderdau is one of the coaches and teachers for the Whitehall School District’s robotics teams and will lead the squad to the VEX IQ state competition in Appleton this Sunday.

Whitehall has seven teams competing in the junior high and elementary portions of the competition at the Fox Cities Exhibition Center in Appleton. 

Auderdau has seen the growth of robotics programs throughout the state firsthand. He was one of the first teachers in the area to begin exploring the programs, touring a school in Ohio before getting underway locally. What started as 18 teams in nine local schools has quadrupled with more growth on the horizon.

The Whitehall robotics teams competed in four meets throughout this season, including a 50-team competition that was held in the Whitehall School District gymnasium, the largest competition in the state this season.

Four teams from Whitehall will compete in the elementary portion of the contest on Sunday.

Whitehall’s RoboBucks team has the second-highest score in the state, Dingos is fourth, The Bursts is sixth and Stars In de Skies is 16th. 

Two more Whitehall teams will compete in the junior high portion of the state competition, including The Functions, ranked 19th and DT’s, ranked 26th.

Whitehall is one of several area schools who will have representatives in Appleton. Of the 48 teams competing in the middle school level, 11 are from Trempealeau County. 

There will be three teams from Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau competing in the middle school portion, two from Holy Family Catholic School in Arcadia, one from Eleva-Strum, one from SS Peter and Paul in Independence, one from Independence Middle School and the Trempealeau County Robotics team, based in Arcadia. 

SSPP’s team Knights B. is ranked 21st in the state, while G-E-T’s team 2818A is 23rd; the other two G-E-T teams are ranked 48th and 66th.

The top team from Holy Family, Botheads, is 24th, the other, The Bro-Bots is 41st and the TC Robotics Team is 43rd.

There are numerous ways in which teams qualified for the state tournament.

Teams compete in a teamwork challenge in which they use their robots to stack blocks, or move them into corners, while also using balls that are placed on the competition field to score additional points. 

For the teamwork challenge, they use two robots to compete, but they can also do a skills competition with one robot. The two drivers have to switch halfway through the one-minute limit.

Teams can also advance through a design award, which qualifies teams partly based on the quality of the engineering notebook they keep throughout the season. Those students also have to pass through an interview process and judging done throughout competitions.

Auserdau noted the numerous ways the robotics program has helped students. 

In addition to having to build the robots within strict guidelines using VEX parts — which Auserdau described as similar to Lego sets — they have to use computers to program the robots and geometry skills to tell the robots how to function. 

The program also helps students on a interactive level, however, as Auserdau noted the teamwork and communication aspects of the competitions. 

Auderdau also said the competition changes annually, noting last year the students had to use cones instead of blocks to score points. 

The Whitehall teacher also said the growth of the program would not have been possible without the assistance of Ashley Furniture Industries Inc.

Auserdau said Ashley has helped fund the programs annually and that has provided a unique opportunity for students.

Once strictly a math teacher, Auserdau is only teaching one math course this year. Next year, he likely won’t have any, instead focusing more time on the continued growth of the robotics programs, which he hopes will also be used for other courses in the school.