The Half Metal Jackets, a team 1296A middle school VEX EDR robotics team, season started by watching the 2018 game reveal - “In The Zone”. The game objective is to maneuver mobile goals and cones in order to score points.
The Half Metal Jackets took several weeks to build the best robot they could. By working together as a team, they accomplished all their goals in building their robot - “The Batmobile”. The Batmobile is able to both pick up cones and mobile goals as well as score in the 20-point zone, rare for this age group. After their robot was ready to go, HMJ traveled to their first competition in October 2017 in Terrell where they won the “Design Award” at a high school level. The Design Award recognizes the team as being professional in their design approach.
HMJ traveled to two more high school competitions - Buckner and Killeen, in November and December 2017, winning the Amaze Award and the Judges Award. The Amaze Award is awarded to the team with an amazing and well-rounded team with a top performing robot, while the Judges Award is awarded from the judges for special accomplishments of the team.
Finally, the Half Metal Jackets traveled to their first middle school competition at Rockwall-Heath HS in December 2017 where they won the Excellence Award and placed second in the overall competition. The Excellence Award is the highest award that can be received in VEX that goes to the all-around top team and qualified HMJ for the State Championship competition in Greenville as well as the US Open in Iowa.
The team then traveled to a competition in Sachse in January 2018 where they won first place in robot competition and the Excellence Award. The team also competed at Flower Mound in February and won the Excellence Award and the Skills Award for the first time in team’s history.
At the North Texas 2018 Middle School Vex EDR State Championship the team won the Build Award.
The Half Metal Jackets are mentored by the Full Metal Jackets of Rockwall High School.
