Culture | October 12th, 2016
By Ben Haugmo
benhaugmo@yahoo.com
The NDSU annual Bison BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) Robotics competition was started to encourage middle school and high school students to become interested in engineering, science and technology careers.
Before the main competition kicks off, community members are invited to preview submissions during Mall Day this weekend.
Each Bison BEST competition has had a different theme, and this year, robots will be designed to perform agricultural tasks.
At Liberty Middle School in West Fargo, a team of 86 students is designing a robot that will harvest vegetables, plant seeds, and corral pigs. The aim is to complete as many tasks as possible within three minutes.
Michael Stecher is a science teacher at Liberty Middle School. Together with teachers of other subjects, he has helped to emphasize the interdisciplinary aspects of competing for Bison BEST.
“What we’re doing as teachers,” said Stecher, “is tying agriculture into all four of our classrooms, making this an interdisciplinary project. In my class, in science, they’re learning about growing lettuce and what plants need. In math, they looked at scale models of building a robot and conversions. In language arts, they’re working on the engineering notebook itself.”
The team at Liberty Middle School is organized as distinct departments. One team is working to build the robot, but there are many other processes involved in preparing for the competition. One team has to code the robot, another has to build the playing field that the robot performs its tasks on, and yet another team works on outreach and getting the word out to the public.
“The competition says ‘Hey here’s your task, do it,’” said Stecher, “so we figured the best way to do the task with 86 students is break them up into specific departments and have them each have their role. It’s kind of like a company, and I would say we’re bigger than most companies in Fargo.”
The main competition will be held in two weeks at the Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse at NDSU, but anyone interested in previewing the robots at work can come to West Acres this weekend.
YOU SHOULD KNOW
Bison BEST Mall Day
October 15
West Acres Mall
February 23rd 2026
February 16th 2026
February 13th 2026
January 15th 2026
January 15th 2026
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