ST. LOUIS, MO.—Updates have been coming in via email on the Franklin School Robotics Team’s performance at the World Championships in St. Louis. These are being sent from Franklin Town Councilman Benny Burgess, husband of the team’s coach, Liz Burgess. They are in order from most recent at 2:34 p.m. to earlier Friday, which was a recap of Thursday’s activities. There are four matches today at 9:58 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 4:16 p.m. and 5:40 p.m. and all of these are central time.

• 10:13 a.m., April 27—Final post from the BOT.BOT performed really well in its final match. The shooter worked well and thus they scored lots of points.

  Number 1 seed had issues and did not score anywhere near their tournament average and so once again the BOT came away on the losing side.

  Recapping, this program is about learning and FHS students were surely tested and they responded. And finally, this is the conclusion of robotics for the three seniors, Darryl West, Grant Scarboro and Clinton Smith. We wish them well.

  Good bye from St Louis and thanks for following and for all of your support.

• 9:14 a.m., April 27—BOT is under pressure this morning.While we have had one good match, we are allied with the no 1 team on our field and one of the top 5 in the entire field,so there has been intense negotiations over whether we can outscore the other team or whether we try to block the other teams and play defense.

  A lot at stake for the other team so there is a lot pressure on BOT to perform.

• 2:34 p.m., April 26—Franklin finally had a small ray of sunshine when they finally got the shooter to throw the Frisbees — But by the end of the match, we jammed up again.With our jamming shooter and our weak alliance partners FHS lost another match.While spirits are sagging for any chance of advancing, the spirit of determination and drive to get the shooter to work is still strong.
• 11:22 a.m., April 26—FHS just went off and again the shooter was inoperative.When they test it works but when they get on the field it does not —very frustrating.
• 9:17 a.m., Friday, April 16 —Good morning from St Louis. We finally made it after a 14-hour bus ride.  We checked into our hotel, visited the Arch and unpacked the Robot. Most of the students attended a couple of training classes until around 8:30, then a hurried pizza dinner and team meeting followed by a late night with lots of anticipation of the beginning of the competition.  Yesterday did not bode well for the BOT. Playing three of our eight matches in the preliminary round yesterday, our shooter did not function as we had hoped. At the end of the day, we were 0-3. Third from the last out of approximately 100 teams on this field. Lots of discussing and real world problem solving for the students with input from their mentors. Still not sure situation is resolved but they have not given up. This is the team that perseveres. They have been here before and are not in a state of panic but more of a here is where we are and what do we need to do fix the problem —lots of determination. That usually pays off.

Burgess said there is a link to live video streaming of the competition and FHS is playing on the Archemides field — to click on that link. To see live video go to: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics/