High school robotics teams have become a keystone of STEM education, giving students a hands-on chance to explore engineering, programming, and teamwork. “Well, we need to prep for just about everything to go wrong because of Murphy’s law.”Captain Alex Graff explains, “You also have to prep all the newbies who have no idea what’s going on.” While the excitement of competitions often captures the public’s attention, the real magic happens behind the scenes.
The journey for a robotics team begins long before the competition season. But at the launch of the new FTC (First Tech Challenge) challenge. This season’s theme is Into The Deep- teams are to take 1.5” x 1.5″ x 3.5″ blocks, known as samples, and score them into labeled buckets. The first robotics meet was just planning, the robotics team has 12 students, 3 of which are returning. So, the first weeks of practice were teaching everyone the ropes.
Each member of the team plays a role, whether in building, programming, digital media, or project management. “My role is Lead Coach #2 along with Mrs. Graff. My role is more of an adult supervision role and I will mainly just challenge students’ thinking and get them to think about their different ideas like the pros and cons etc.” Mr. Kim, lead robotics coach says, “I am also one of the main connections to the school doing a lot of things like working with Ms. Hauck & Mr. Boudouris to plan transportation, getting forms signed, etc.” The team’s dynamic is like a small company, where communication and collaboration are essential. Students may be team leaders, designers, builders, drivers, or programmers. Everyone contributes based on their strengths; promoting a sense of ownership and accountability.
Once ideas are finalized, it’s time to design the robot, there are steps they have to complete before reaching the new layout. First builders take apart the old robot, organize the tools from last year, and figure out what needs to be ordered. While they do this, programmers, using Android Studio, a JAVA programming software, start laying out the basics. Students rapidly prototype parts and get hands-on experience with tools like 3D printers. The build phase can be jumbled but it’s also where the team bonds, overcomes challenges together, and learns useful lessons about problem-solving.
While the build team constructs the physical robot, the rest helps put together the arena. Every FTC challenge has a different setup for the field. The team helps rush to put the field together so that when the builders are done, they can run on the field. While the builders and others on the team are busy, the digital media is behind the scenes promoting the team and sending businesses letters to get sponsored donations.
As competition day approaches, the intensity ramps up. Teams run practice matches to fine-tune their system and troubleshoot any issues with the robot. “I think the robot is still in its early stages because we had a lot of hurdles to overcome at the beginning of the season. The main challenge this year is coding since we are transitioning between different coding methods and having to start over with our code as we are finding it difficult to translate anything from the previous years.” Kim explains. These practices are essential; they show weaknesses in the design or programming that must be managed before the big day. Project managers help make lists of what they need to pack for the upcoming meet, as well as what to check on the robot.
When competition day arrives, it’s a mix of excitement and nerves. “This first meet was a little stressful because of dumb little mistakes that happen due to the stress, but after the second match we started doing pretty good with the robot,” Graff explains. With teams from the area showcasing their hard work. While they aim to win, for many, the true rewards lie in learning experiences and newfound friendships with other teams.
