Members of the King robotics team said they are excited to finally have hand-on experiences considering all that has been lost due to the pandemic. Robotics increasingly becomes a better-looking pick for extracurricular activities, as students in other after-school activities are looking to join.
“I started robotics before the sports season started, and I thought it would just be interesting,” senior Alexander Sloan said. “I had friends who were already in robotics, and I've met a lot of new people from different schools and systems. It's been really too cool to connect and engage with other people through robotics.”
Robotics is a team activity where students build, program and experiment with others. Different classes teach different things about robotics, which could be coding, programming, constructing models or just experimenting with machines that are already built.
“I hope that in the future students are going to learn to use tools, how to manage building under a deadline and learning teamwork, as well as programming and mechanics,” robotics instructor Carrie Russel said. “All of which could open many different career paths for them.”
DPSCD has recognized the activity as having the potential to bolster students into being able to choose careers that may not have been open to them before, and the students and teachers also see this opportunity to grow.
“I think doing robotics and learning all these different terms and techniques will allow me to pursue multiple paths,” junior Deavan Sherman said. “The one I’m currently looking at is engineering. A lot of other students in my section have also said the same about how it could possibly help them post-graduation. I also just think robotics is really fun to participate in with other students who enjoy doing the same thing that I do.”
Robotics is a good pick for any student looking to bolster their potential and grow even after graduation as well as having fun time along the way. And it has already been announced that robotics will have different events, which will be announced in the future.
“Students enjoy robotics because they enjoy building something in an environment where they get to work with other students and meet new people,” Russell said. “The MEZ [Michigan Engineering Zone] includes students from 18 high schools in Detroit and we all support each other in doing this very difficult task of building a robot.”
