Smith students succeed at Mars Rover Celebration

February 22, 2010— Four teams of Smith Middle School students won top-three honors at the Mars Rover Celebration, held on Saturday, Jan. 30 at the University of Houston.

In the competition, each team was asked to build a rover that could accomplish a mission on Mars. Additionally, the students had to create a five-minute informative skit that focused on the components of their rover.
Smith’s teams competed against teams from the greater Houston area in two out of the three possible categories, Remote Control and Freeform, and earned the following trophies:

• Team Robotic Saber Cat won first place in Remote Control. The team consists of sixth-grade students Diego Ruvalcaba, Dalton Ding, Christian Schonhoeft, Jared Sturm and Alex Botello;

• Space Rover won first place in Freeform. Team members are Canyon Evenson, Daniel Fichtel, Jon Wagner, Branndon Marion and James Compton;

• Poles Explorer won second place in Freeform. Team members are sixth-grade students Hannah Wang, Camille Lewis and Tori Carter; and

• Saber Smith Rover won third place in Freeform. Team members are Karla Gonzalez and Aksa Muhammad.

 “I am so proud of each one of the Mars Rover groups,” said Smith teacher and sponsor Doreen Jarvis. “Their success at this competition was a testament to their hard work and dedication to their team. We are already looking forward to next year.”