Robotics course and club offer opportunities to program, build

For Upper schoolers with a passion for coding, programming, and building, there are two programs in Robotics open to students, one in class and one after school. Both programs are taught and advised by Upper School Computer Science teacher Pati Castillo. 

“In our Robotics class, we have two groups who are creating speed bots so that they can play tag together,” explained Ms. Castillo. Students are first tasked with building the robot by following a precise set of instructions, and then they must learn how to program it. The final step is to add a bumper switch to each bot; essentially a one-step process. This is a set of code that is programmed and when triggered, signals that a robot has been tagged.

“This is their first project,” shared Ms. Castillo, underscoring that this lays the groundwork for building a claw. “Once they’ve accomplished these things then they will have the basic robotic understanding and be able to build off of those concepts from there.”

As students learn more about circuitry and the finer points of programming, they are welcome and invited to join the Upper School Robotics team, which competes in VEX Tournaments around the Long Island region, with the potential to reach the state and world championships.

Currently a team of seven to eight students, the group works after school on their robots, readying them for a series of competitions that measure the skills of their robots to complete pre-selected tasks, logging their data in a manner that emulates engineering formats, and in-the-moment collaboration and decision-making.

“On our robotics team, students work together to build one robot. For our current competition cycle, their robot must slide through poles under a net and also expand vertically to activate a flywheel, which acts as a type of shooter,” described Ms. Castillo. “This allows the team to throw the triballs across the field.”

Meet our Upper School Robotics Team and discover what makes them tick.

After each tournament, the team deconstructs their performance and begins iterating their robot for the next competition. While only one robot can compete in a tournament at a time, the team is currently at work on a second version. “Their second robot is meant to be sturdier and allow for a more accurate throwing and a better defense,” said Ms. Castillo.

Photos and video by Alvin Caal/Friends Academy