The school many of us on the Javenger's team go to(Cumberland Valley HS) has after-school clubs for everything from Doctor Who to Archery… but something was missing: a Robotics Club! When our team demonstrated our robot and shared our FTC experience during school lunch periods, we observed a huge amount of interest and excitement from a significant portion of the student body. However, many of our classmates could not join a robotics team due to schedule conflicts and other such reasons. So, we decided to form a robotics club to introduce students to FIRST in a fun, convenient, and stress-free environment. This club, which was established last year, allows our fellow high school students (of all backgrounds and experience levels) to learn about STEM and robotics free of cost.
However, it wasn’t just the students that were interested in robotics. We were fortunate enough to find out that three of our teachers volunteered to advise the club! After completing the necessary paperwork, the CV Robotics Club was finally official and we started meetings right away. Last year, we had a few introductory sessions to teach the club attendees about FIRST and the basics of programming. We hung posters in the hallways and broadcast quirky announcements to spread the word about the club, which led to a great turnout. These events were very successful and the students had a lot of fun. We’ve already started 2016 meetings and are planning to have the attendees build and program robots to perform challenges and participate in a friendly competition. We will also accommodate those with prior robotics / programming experience by creating advanced tasks.
Our goal for this club is to make Robotics (and STEM in general) more accessible and less intimidating for our classmates. We want high schoolers to experience the joy of robotics, as we know firsthand that FIRST has the power to open doors and illuminate possibilities for all.
We will keep you posted on how the club develops!