Sterling High School’s robotics team recently began their ninth season in preparation for the competition that will be held on March 19-21st at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.
This club is an extracurricular activity that gives students the opportunity to express their creativity and create something that represents Sterling High School. Robotics encourages problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork. These students work on the robot every day for around three-four hours. Although the team took the winter break off from working on their project, they are back on track with working tirelessly to perfect their robot.
There are many roles among the team that the students can be assigned to, including programmer, builder, designer, accountant, mentor, and the driver who is responsible for operating the robot.
This year’s group is slightly larger than last year, allowing the team more opportunities and involvement.
The official season lasts about four months, from January to April but their preseason usually lasts from the summer to when the official season starts.
Robotics prepares to perform many test runs before they decide on a final robot for their competition. Members of robotics are currently working on the rough draft design of the robot, which is a process all about trial and error. One of the main goals is for the robot to be able to scoop up a ball and shoot in a hoop created by the team.
Robotics coach Alexis Rivera exclaimed, “This year we have a stronger group with several students who have three-four years of experience.”
The club has seven seniors who have experience under their belt, as well as two alumni who are coming back from college and have around four-five years of experience. Some members have been in robotics since eighth grade and are now experienced sophomores.
Senior Phelix Cervantez expressed, “Something I’ve learned while in robotics is the woodworking skills from building the pits.”
The S.H.S. robotics team never knows what the other teams are building or focusing on while building their robot so it is essentially a guessing game what the competition will look like.
This year the focus for the robots ability is accuracy and precision rather than speed like last year’s focus.
The program has been around for nine years, but has been competing for eight years due to covid. In those years, the club has seen around eighty people passing in and out of the club. An issue that has been observed is that there are many who are interested but end up waiting till their senior year to join so they usually don’t end up as experienced. The more experienced members are able to help new members navigate and learn all the aspects of robotics
It is recommended that even if you don’t know if you’ll like it, it is a great experience to try all the roles to see what you like during freshman year.
