A second middle-school robotics team from TMI – The Episcopal School of Texas has won first place in its qualifying tournament in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competition. The TMI Pink Panthers team won the Champions Award at their qualifying tournament, held Feb. 4 at Briscoe Middle School. The previous week, another TMI robotics team, the Rowdy Robots, won the same honor at their tournament in Fredericksburg.
The wins qualify both teams to advance to the FLL Alamo Championships-West competitions, to be held March 12 at Metzger Middle School, where they will compete for a single spot to advance to the FLL World Championship the following month in Houston.
FLL competition involves a presentation of an engineering project using the LEGO Mindstorms robotics system Teams create robots to complete as many table-top missions as possible in a two-and-a-half minute game, during which students have to quickly change their robot’s attachment and run the correct program in a short period of time.
This year’s FLL competition theme is Animal Allies. For their projects, teams had to find a solution that was beneficial to the relationship between animals and humans. The Pink Panthers designed a biodegradable packaging material made from barley, wheat and mycellum (a fungus) to replace plastic grocery bags to reduce injury to see turtles and other sea life that can mistake grocery bags for jellyfish. The Rowdy Robots created an automated fish-tank window cleaner that causes less stress on fish and other aquatic animals.
The Pink Panthers won first place in their qualifier for the second year in a row. Members are: Juan Pablo Cajiga-Pena, Larissa Esparza, Sebastian Flores, Chloe Harthan, Benjamin Jimenez, Ryan Kyle, Sean Power and Will Walsh. Rowdy Robots members are: Tyler Cunningham, Ashton Dietzmann, John Fera. Tres Gaiser, Mikae Mumme, Jacob Perez, Trey Rucker and Newton Tran.
TMI Episcopal has announced spring Cadet of the Semester awards for two members of the Texas Military Institute Corps of Cadets, the school’s JROTC program.
TMI Episcopal’s Mario Rivela Chapter of the Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica (Spanish Honor Society) inducted 26 new members in a ceremony held April 19 in the school’s All Saints Chapel.
Latin students from TMI Episcopal brought home honors in many categories from the Texas State Junior Classical League (JCL) convention, held April 13-15 at Naaman Forest High School in Garland.
TMI Episcopal juniors Bridget Lynch and Annie Notzon spoke to the April 10 meeting of the Dominion Rotary Club about their experiences at the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Conference (RYLA), held Jan. 12-15 at the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in New Braunfels. The Dominion Rotary Club sponsors two students from TMI every year to attend RYLA.
MISSION: TMI provides an exceptional education with values based on the teachings of Jesus Christ that challenge motivated students to develop their full potential in service and leadership.
NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS TO STUDENTS TMI Episcopal admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, sex, religion, and physical ability to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. The school does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, sex, religion, and physical ability in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and financial aid programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
TMI Episcopal 20955 W. Tejas Trail San Antonio TX 78257 phone (210) 698-7171 fax (210) 698-0715