OVER LOOK ON BOTBALL
Welcome to Botball!

Get ready for a high-tech, high-energy approach to education! The Botball Educational Robotics Program integrates science, technology, engineering, and math with robotics to keep your students on the cutting edge of technology!

The Botball Program begins with a 2-day professional development workshop where educators and team leaders learn about current robotics technology and how to implement it into their classroom or community. Through the course of the workshop, participants receive all the information about the current Botball game and the reusable robotics kit and components - They even construct a working demo bot!
The Building Period and Tournament

Following the workshop, students are given about seven weeks to design, build, program a team of mobile, autonomous robots and a website documenting their process. Participants compete against each other on a 4’ x 8’ playing field in a fast paced, non-destructive regional tournament. The robots are student built and programmed to maneuver on the game board without the need for remote control.

Botball events are currently held in 13 regions across the nation:

* Arkansas
* Florida
* Georgia
* Greater DC area
* Hawaii
* Midwest
* New England
* New York/New Jersey
* Northern California
* Oklahoma
* Pennsylvania
* Southern California
* Texas

The National Conference on Educational Robotics

The learning doesn’t end after the regional tournaments. Each year students, teachers, robotics enthusiasts, and professionals from across the country gather for the annual National Conference on Educational Robotics. Teachers and students lead the way in sharing ideas from curriculum integration to technical aspects of robotics by presenting papers during breakout sessions.

Highlights of the conference include nationally recognized professionals from organizations such as NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory giving fascinating presentations on their topics of expertise. Of course the most anticipated events are the National Botball Tournament, the Beyond Botball Tournament, and the Robotics Showcase.
Why is the Game so Complex?

Like many of life’s challenges, the Botball Program presents an open-ended problem with a variety of solutions. The many different scoring methods offer teams challenges at different levels - requiring them to make decisions about strategy, design, and construction. This gives teams experience in evaluating options and working towards a solution.

A lot of teams find that keeping with the KISS philosophy of keep it simple stupid is often the best solution for a complex problem.

Where is the Driver?

There is no driver! Botball robots are completely autonomous and rely on their computer programming to start, stop, and maneuver on the game board. Each robot uses sensors to detect changes in light, sound, distance, and color. The robot’s actions are based on the feedback from the sensors combined with the computer programming written and implemented by the students in advance.

Why Robots?

In order for students to apply the subjects they learn in school, they must be able to use those subjects in a way that is meaningful. By designing, building, programming, and documenting robots, students use science, engineering, technology, math, and writing skills in a hands-on project that reinforces their learning.

(taken from botball offical website)