Hearing the sounds of mechanical whirring, keyboards clacking and the sounds of soldering all while working tirelessly for the goal of building a top-notch robot that can conquer the upcoming challenges it has.
Team 935, Newton High School’s Robotics Team, plans on competing in two tournaments this spring season, the first held in Shawnee on March 13-16 and the second one held in Oklahoma City, Okla. April 3-6.
“This year for robotics, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology has given us the game Crescendo. You have a basketball-sized field and you pick up 14-inch rings and shoot them into goals to score points and the highest score wins. The game piece makes it really different. In past seasons we have had balls, or roughly spherical objects, that is a big challenge and it will change the way the game is played,” senior Erik Kaufman said.
A single person does not play this game but is instead played with a team—a team filled with different students, each with their own set of skills.
“We have a significantly larger group of people. Last year we had seven and this year we have 19, so it will be very different,” senior Sarah Koehn said. “If you are on the design team, you are doing a lot of work because you have to design the robot in week one, but if you are in programming not so much [does] it depend on what subgroup you are in.”
Robotics is not just for those who have dealt with robots before but is for students to try new things with the potential to find a new passion.
“I have been here for the whole year, and the hardest part is not knowing what is going on, as a sophomore that joined, they expect things that I should know, but I do not. That is the hardest part, people expect you to know things that you do not, but it is not hard to pick things up. I think there is something for everyone. I enjoy doing things like soldering, and robotics allowed me to enjoy it more and consider different jobs in the future,” sophomore Charlotte Price said.
Members of the robotics team do the execution, but the coaches are the mastermind behind the whole operation. Coaches give the team guidance and help plan out the agenda for the team.
“With this season I hope we compete hard and well and [that] we bring a functioning robot that is completely student-built and a design we are proud of. I am constantly inspired by the students on the robotics team every single season. The love comes back and the excitement of the students gets me excited. As an adult, my role is to help facilitate students’ ideas and help them communicate their ideas. I would say it is pretty work-intensive because we work hard but we also play hard. After competition, we become a little family,” assistant coach Collin Potluri said.
