NEW PALESTINE — There are only 18 students in the whole school, but the Montessori Science Academy sent three teams to the state robotics championships March 7 in Indianapolis, including one that won the state championship for its age group and another that placed third overall.
All three teams qualified for the world robotics championships next month.
It was a sweet feat for the tiny New Palestine school, especially given how many times its teams had missed advancing to the finals by just one point in the past.
“We went through three different tournaments where we missed qualifying for state by one point, until we finally won one,” said robotics coach Brian Wheatley, director at the school for students in first through eighth grades, as well as preschool.
The school’s three robotics teams — one intermediate team and two elementary teams — make up nearly the entire student body.
“We’re a small school, so to compete with all these other bigger schools and bigger programs was a lot of fun,” said Wheatley. “The way our teams finished was incredible.”
The school places a special emphasis on teaching science, technology, engineering and math, which the director said likely contributes to having such a heavy concentration of students in robotics.
Taking part in robotics at the school isn’t required, but it is encouraged. “We’re a science-focused school, so it’s integrated into our curriculum,” said Wheatley. “We use the robots for more than just the competitions. We’ll use them to calculate ratios with gears, or other math problems or physics problems.”
At the state robotics tournament this year, the academy’s intermediate team — 18799A — won not only the state title among middle schools but also their division, as well as the Create Award among all teams in its age group.
All three Montessori Academy teams earned an invitation to the world robotics championships, which were scheduled for April, but the students were crestfallen to hear the tournament was canceled last week due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Still, the students are riding high on their win at state.
“I just love doing robotics,” said eight-grader Hunter Lehman, 14, who was thrilled to take part in the championship-winning team. While team members take turns with various tasks, his favorite part is driving, which means controlling the robot during competition.
“We were really lucky this year. Our team did the plays right and ended up winning the state championship,” he said.
His mom and coach say it wasn’t luck, but hard work, that earned the team the state championship.
“I was in tears when they won because those boys had tried and tried and kept falling short,” said Hunter’s mom, Megan Lehman. “It’s neat to watch them work and see the character development that takes place throughout the year.”
