Programming the future: Robotics Club builds robots and relationships

BY ALEXANDRA SANSONE

Covered from counter to floor in wires and robot limbs, David Schultz’s classroom looks something like a laboratory. After the school day ends, the classroom becomes home to the Robotics Club, a group dedicated to programing and creating robots. The Robotics Club was initially founded under a different name, Technology Club, by Harris Ness and Madison Worley their freshman year.

“I wanted to have a place in Cooper that I could bring technology news to and also teach kids about coding if they didn’t want to take a full on class about it,” Ness said.

The arrival of robotics classes at CCHS prompted the transformation of the Technology Club to the Robotics Club after its founders enrolled in the course. After some time in the class, it was decided that the Technology Club would convert to a more specific branch of technology: robotics.

“The robotics class taught me things that I hadn’t known before and it also provided a hands on experience with robots to help kids learn,” Ness said.

“I wanted to have a place in Cooper that I could bring technology news to and also teach kids about coding if they didn’t want to take a full on class about it,” Ness said.

Meeting every other Tuesday, members of the club are able to program code and manipulate virtual robots on computers while learning the basics of programming. Members of the Robotics Club include students in the robotics classes, those who are on the robotics team and other Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) enthusiasts. Members that are also enrolled in the robotics class utilize meetings to show off their creations, such as a  robot capable of performing the chicken dance, syncing the movements with the music.

“I believe that they share a common interest,” Schultz said. “Most of the folks that do this are either friends or know people in the club, so they share a common interest in computer hardware and gaming. When you combine those interests with something physical they can put their hands on, it helps.”

Currently, the club does not send its members to robotics competitions, that is the focus of the Robotics Team. In the future, the hope is to eventually merge the club to compete on the team creating one unit. As of right now, there is overlap between members of the Robotics Team and club, with about 25-30 members in attendance at each meeting. Both are open to anyone with an interest.

The club was initially funded by the Cooper City Town Council when they donated money to support the Robotics Club and class. Upon receiving the money for the program, Ms. Doll was able to match the funds, resulting in the purchase of 14 complete robots as well as the practice field that the robots maneuver through.

“The better you want to make your robot, the more you want to compete, the more you have to spend,” Schultz said.

“I like watching the successes and failures because you get to play and sometimes we have spectacular failures,” Schultz said.

Robotics Club gives its members a chance to learn and grow, not only from the relationships they build but from their experiences with robots they create. Members of the Robotics Club are on a trial and error run when programing – learning from their failures helps better themselves both in the world of robotics and in the outside world.

“I like watching the successes and failures because you get to play and sometimes we have spectacular failures,” Schultz said. “You want to make the robots move but the motors are put on backward so the robot will just spin in circles no matter what you do. Watching people figure things out as they go along, not just looking at the computer screen and changing the code but literally unbolting things and bolting them on in different ways gives people that hands-on appreciation.”

Photo by The Lariat Photography