April 2nd: The Academies of Loudoun’s Office of Admissions and Outreach hosted a VEX Robotics Competition for various elementary and middle schools. ACL student volunteers came in early to learn how to judge the rounds and the routes for the student-led tours. The competition was held in the cafeteria, which was taped off and arranged into 15 fields, each set with a recording camera to document the rounds and the large overhead TV displaying live footage from the cameras. Students had a lot of fun making poses for the TV, and had even more fun controlling their robots to gain points by moving the cubes and balls in each field. The cafeteria was a constant sea of blues, reds, yellows, greens, and oranges. When they weren’t on the competition floor, teams were either in their assigned rooms or on the student-led tours of the ACL mission and school.

 

photographed by Saanvi Gutta