The Inaugural Year Of The Robotics Team

This is the inaugural year of Saint Andrews’ competitive robotics team! Robotics has, in recent years, been becoming extremely popular as an extracurricular activity for middle and high schoolers. In light of this, and as students in our Robotics Club, which teaches the basics of engineering and coding, expressed interest in pursuing higher-level robotics, the school decided to form a competitive group as well. Our robotics team consists of two distinct teams of five students each, as well as our mentor, Mr. Mata, as part of the VEX IQ league. We work together during our meets, but build separate robots and compete in as individual teams. So far, we’ve attended six competitions and weekend tournaments, where we have the opportunity to compete with other robotics teams in the area.

 

Each year, VEX releases a game, which teams then build a robot designed to play. This year, the game, called “Full Volume” involves collecting blocks of various shapes and sizes and distributing them into goals. Over the season, we’ve been constantly modifying, building, and re-building our robot in order to keep it updated, whether through mechanisms completely of our own design or inspired by other robot designs we’ve noticed.

 

Robotics has been an amazing experience for me at Saint Andrews. Through this program, I’ve learned to navigate the design process, address problems efficiently, and work with a team to achieve set goals. It’s also helped me develop skills like leadership, team management, collaboration, and critical thinking. Most of all, it’s fun! I’ve always loved science and math, but I’ve never been interested in playing sports. Because of this, I’ve missed out on something most kids experience: the feeling of being a part of a team. In robotics, we meet frequently and work together to win a game: like sports, but with no athletic ability required. It’s given me the chance to have that experience and make lots of friends along the way!

 

In future years, we’ll be expanding our robotics program to include a larger number of students. This year’s small pilot group is just the beginning. This year, we’ve learned how robotics works: how to build and code a robot, how competitions are set up, and what the requirements are. Going forward, we aim to apply this knowledge to improve the experiences of future teams in their robotics adventures!