Members of the robotics' team during a 3D printing workshop at MSU St. Andrews. | MSU St. Andrews/Facebook
Members of the robotics' team during a 3D printing workshop at MSU St. Andrews. | MSU St. Andrews/Facebook
The Midland Public Schools Board of Education Dec. 19 meeting was teeming with robotic gadgets.
The board members received presentations from the five middle school robotics teams from Jefferson and Northeast schools.
The first challenge this year was called PowerPlay, with the objective of stacking as many cones on top of certain points as possible. Members from the Jefferson CyDogs, Jefferson TechnoHuskies, Jefferson Wired Wolves, Northeast Viking Vendors and Northeast Viking Warriors spoke to the board about their team values, goals and successes in the first challenge.
“I'm always just blown away by this presentation, you know, first because of what the students get to experience. You know, I love hearing about the professionalism, the fun that they have. But more importantly, resiliency, teamwork. And it's always amazing to me the experiences learned by helping out other teams,” said Board Member Phil Rausch. “You know, you're talking about the Vassar team (opponent’s team) that you helped out and how much the kids learn from that. You know, and then where my mind started going was your comments around mentoring and coaching and especially at the elementary school level and continuing to build the pipeline of more kids.”
Not only did each of the teams develop and perfect their own version of the robot to complete the challenge, but they also did outreach and fundraising in the community as well. Funds have been secured for this season and next and the students recruited their peers and younger kids into robotics to further the club. The students highlighted numerous academic opportunities to make the club appealing like working in collegiate labs and engineering firms in the area.
The five teams had varying successes in some of the competitions, with some coming home from a competition without any awards and others winning first place in different categories.
The board greatly appreciated the presentation and asked all the coaches and team members questions about growing this program in the district, as it is still fairly new. The coaches and students said increasing female representation in the coaching staff, coordinating some curriculums between the schools and continuing to support and fund the program are objectives of the program.
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