The Chicken Buckets is the first elementary school team from San Diego to qualify for the Vex IQ Robotics World Championship since 2020.
(Photo by Maggie Jiang)
A team of six local students became one of the first in San Diego to compete in the elementary school division at the Vex IQ Robotics World Championship held in St. Louis April 28-30. The competition is one of the largest of its kind, and drew about 400 elementary school teams from more than 50 countries.
The local students, mostly 4th graders from Carmel Valley and 4S Ranch, are known as the Chicken Buckets Team, and have been preparing and competing since last fall. In March, they were invited to compete in the U.S. Open Robotics Tournament in Iowa, where they placed first in their teamwork division, according to a news release.
“Joining the Robotics World Championship is a truly meaningful achievement,” said Juan Moraleja, the head coach for competitions for Magikid San Diego in the news release, which helped train the team. “It not only reflects strong abilities in robotics, engineering design, and programming, but also demonstrates excellence in teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and the ability to perform under pressure.”
Less than 6 percent of the 411 Vex IQ elementary school teams from Southern California made the cut for the world competition.
In the past year, the Chicken Buckets team learned about engineering concepts and put that knowledge to work building robots that could be driven across a platform to pick up and stack plastic pins and place them on specific targets. The students spent months preparing for interviews with the judges and compiling a 100-plus page digital engineering notebook, showing their thinking and the iterations in the coding and design of their robots.
Despite all their preparation and experience competing in tournaments, some team members said they were nervous about competing on the world stage.
“It was very nerve-racking in the beginning,” said Leo Jiang, an 11-year-old from 4S Ranch and one of the primary robot drivers on the team, in the news release. “But the second I walked into the convention center, it just looked so amazing. There were people from all over the world competing in this one country, in this one city. It was really cool.”
In three days of intense competition, the Chicken Buckets Team had 11 matches where they were partnered with other teams they had just met, some of which did not speak English. Their alliances included teams from Colombia, South Korea and China. The Chicken Buckets advanced to the finals in their division and placed 6th out of 41 partnered teams.
“What matters even more than the ranking is the growth the students experienced throughout the season,” Moraleja said. “This journey was not only about building a robot, but also about developing character, leadership, and the ability to face challenges together.”
As an example, Moraleja said, the team had to communicate quickly and clearly, and make adjustments when the teams they were partnered with did not agree on strategy. They used a dry-erase board to draw out ideas when dealing with teams that didn’t speak English.
In one match where the partnered team had less experience, the Chicken Buckets proposed taking on the most technically difficult challenges. But the other team refused, got upset and left early. The Chicken Buckets navigated the situation by compromising and adjusting their strategy.
“Usually most of the other teams will just tell the other kids to get out of the way,” Moraleja said. “They understood the emotions of the other team and they were able to give and take.”
Once the team realized they wouldn’t be performing the most difficult technical challenges, the designated driver urged one of his teammates who had less driving experience to take over the controls.
“The team’s decision was to let me drive, but I told the team ‘no,’ ” said Lavine Cai, an 11-year-old from 4S Ranch, in the news release. “If we don’t let everyone drive, they won’t feel like part of the team.”
Moraleja said that showed immense growth because at the beginning of the season, the more experienced drivers did not want to give up their role at competitions.
“I was so proud,” Moraleja said. “It’s essentially asking your starting quarterback to let the second- or third-string quarterback play. And they did it on the world stage.”
As part of the world championship rules, the teams had to act independently in the competitions. Coaches were not allowed in the practice areas, nor were they allowed to give guidance during matches.
“They needed to be completely independent,” Moraleja said. “The students had to delegate amongst themselves, find their alliance members, go to practice rounds and formulate strategy all on their own.”
In addition to Jiang and Cai, the Chicken Buckets team includes Timothy Chen, 10, of 4S Ranch, Rebecca Chen, 12, of 4S Ranch, Kevin Su, 10, of Carmel Valley, and Youcheng Yang, 11, of 4S Ranch.
As for their unusual name, the team credits Timothy Chen for the idea. The day they voted on a name, Chen had eaten a pile of amazingly good chicken at a restaurant for lunch. He suggested the name Chicken Buckets. At first they all laughed. Then they voted. It was unanimous.
— News release submitted by Eleanor Yang Su