Space City BEST

Boosting Engineering Science and Technology

Welcome to Space City BEST!
Important Message from The Director

Space City BEST held its kickoff on October 11th at Waltrip HS, practice day will was held at Galena Park HS on Nov.15th and competition day will be held at Waltrip HS on Nov. 22nd. Space City participants that are eligible for moving on to the state competition will not have the opportunity to participate in Texas BEST due to the schedule changes. With that said, the hub is working with BEST Robotics Inc to see if it is possible for the winners of the local competition to move on to the Frontier Trails BEST competition which will be held on Dec. 6th in Fort Smith Arkansas. Please note that this item is still being worked on and is not a done deal.

Game day is approaching fast and there are few details that need to be discussed. First, game day will be held at Waltrip High School. The map is on the SCBEST website. It will start at 8am and go until 5:30pm. Breakfast and lunch will be sold onsite so plan accordingly. There will no food, drinks or power tools in the gym. Battery operated power drills are ok to bring, but no drilling on the table.

If you have any questions regarding the kit you need to direct them to the kit coordinator. Les Quiocho can help you better than I can. I hope this helps.

Please periodically check the Space City web site, www.scbest.org , for updates.
. David Scarcella

Space City BEST serves as the BEST hub for the greater Houston area. BEST is designed to encourage interest in engineering, science and technology through robotics competitions among middle school and high school students.

The BEST competition inspires and motivates students by challenging them to build a remotely controlled robot to accomplish a defined task within a competitive setting. Professional engineers, industry consultants and teachers are used as coaches to guide student teams through the engineering process. Using only the materials provided, students have six weeks to design, develop, and test a robot that can outperform their competitors. During this time, the students experience the same problems, challenges, and breakthroughs that an engineering team encounters in developing a product for market. In both cases, there are team dynamics, time constraints, material constraints, and pressure from other teams who are trying to solve the same problem.

The weeks of hard work culminate in an exciting daylong competition that names one team the "BEST." The competition combines the excitement of a high school football game with the strategy of a chess match and the intellectual challenge of a science fair. The heart of BEST is the experience of solving a seemingly overwhelming task using simple engineering methods and old-fashioned teamwork. Thanks to this experience, students who participate in BEST are better prepared to meet the challenges of the Technology Age.