January 2021
By Leila Magallanez, Staff Reporter
This past October, KIPP Austin Collegiate’s Robotics team kicked off their second season. This year looks a little different, like all clubs and classes have experienced.
What is Robotics? It’s what it sounds like. Robotics is a school club that participates in FIRST, a program that allows for students to work together and build a robot that will eventually compete in challenges with teams from other schools. Competition with robotics means creating a robot that will have to go through a course where it may need to push, pull, and shoot objects. Every year there is a new course so, teams must build your robots to meet the changing circumstances.
The robotics club allows for anyone 9th- to 12th-grade to participate. Prospective members have to first apply. If selected, they go to ‘’tryouts’’ where they have to work together to complete multiple tasks. Being in robotics allows for students to start exploring their interests and options as far as majors are concerned. Besides all the new friendships, students also get more exposure to tasks and skills that are needed for STEM jobs which are always in demand. Lastly, robotics gives students more scholarship opportunities to help save you money.
This year robotics members are working on their robot a little differently. Since some students are online and some virtual, there are certain roles each student has. All students that attend school in person are working as ‘’builders’’ and physically building the robot while also being in a google meets to get immediate feedback from their peers. The other members of the team split up into ‘’programming, documentation, and strategy’’ programming members work together to learn code for the robot which allows it to move. Documentation members keep record of everything being done and they also work with the other teams. Strategy members learn all the rules and the course to have the best game plan for their robot and obtain maximum points.
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