The Baryons Robotics team is headed to State this weekend after sweeping their competition at last weekend’s qualifier at Selvidge Middle School. They won several awards and are now going to State this weekend at the Missouri University of Technology and Science.

“I am very excited to see them going to State. They won pretty big last week, so they deserve this,” Beth Dierker, Robotics team sponsor, said. Dierker has sponsored the team for four years. Dierker said she remembers one of the teams advancing to Super Regionals the first year she began sponsoring the Robotics team. And while the team was not as successful as she had hoped them to be, she still has faith that the Baryons will advance to Nationals.

“I was very proud to be able to go with my students, and it was a privilege to get to know them better,” Dierker said.

It’s a tradition for the Baryons to make a list of do’s and don’ts after tournaments for their performance, but even Chuck Spohr, one of the team’s mentors, admitted he was having trouble coming up with what they need to improve on.

“This was our best performance both in the field and in the judging categories as well,” said Spohr, who has been with the team for the past seven years.

Every year, Robotics teams participate in a different type of competition that requires a different robot be built for each game. This year, the game requires a robot that can arrange cubes in a pattern under a certain time constraint. The Baryons have constructed a unique robot: one that has a small set of wheels that run opposite of the larger wheels they are built into. The design allows the robot to turn and move at the same time, instead of having to stop, turn, and then be able to progress. While the mobility of the robot is fascinating, its main function uses two outreaching arms to pick up blocks and move them.

As the team was discussing how to improve their robot, Parssa Sazdar, senior and Baryons co-captain, was busy opening up a large box filled with colorful teddy bears. On President’s Day, Sazdar and others from the Baryons will go to Mercy Hospital to demonstrate their robot and hand out the teddy bears to patients afterwards. The team paid for the teddy bears with their own funds.

The Baryons have participated in 18 community outreach events this year, with more to come. One event was held at Sports Fusion in Chesterfield, where the Baryons hosted a Robotics competition. Sports Fusion opened  up a venue for 20 schools’ teams when the Baryons offered to hold the event on a Thursday, a day when Sports Fusion does not regularly get many customers.

The Baryons also have organized events for four Girl Scout Troops. Because they only have male students on the team, Sazdar said they should inform girls about the team and encourage them to join.

Although Sazdar does not have any specific plans hammered out for community service projects in the near future, he was very assertive about one thing: “We’re so thankful for the community allowing us to be a team, so it’s only right that we give back to that community as a team.”