April 2008 — News
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Robots Rock at California High School
Lam's class is lucky in that the initial equipment is funded by ROP. To cover the cost of the competitions his team received a $4,000 grant from the San Ramon Valley Educational Foundation. Then each student's family was hit up for another $400 each. "That brought us $10,000 right there," said Lam. Other schools simply cover the expense or the teams go out and solicit from local organizations. Monte Vista High, said Lam, "hasn't been really successful with that."
Awards are given in a number of areas. "It's not just about winning the robotics competition, though that's a big part of it," said Lam. Awards are presented for design, technology, sportsmanship, and commitment to the FIRST program. In the last four years Monte Vista's team has won the Gracious Professionalism award, given to the team that helps other teams out during the competition and a safety award from Underwriters Laboratories. Then last year an alliance of three schools that included Monte Vista High won the regional competition for the Davis/Sacramento area, which entitled each to head to the Atlanta.
The competitive nature of robotics, said Lam, offers students a way to receive recognition who don't normally get it. "Many times you have sports teams getting recognition. In this case, you have other kids who aren't so athletic but [rather] mentally inclined. And they build a robot.... Everybody seems to find a place on our robotics team where they can contribute and get credit. They learn their limitations and strengths. That helps them in the future."
The class attracts a greater number of boys than girls. Of 24 in Lam's current class, two are girls. But nationwide, he said, the competition figure is about 23 percent. Some teams, he pointed out, are all-girl, such as those sponsored by the Girl Scouts.
Getting Started
As Lam pointed out, few schools offer a class on robotics. But he offers this advice for educators interested in getting started: Begin by writing a curriculum. The one his class uses is actually made available as a sample on the University of California Web site. (A Vex Robotics curriculum is also coming from Autodesk and Innovation First this spring to be included with Vex classroom kits. More information about that can be found here.)
From there it's a matter of getting the equipment, which he advised obtaining in kit form. Both Lego and Vex have education kits. Also, Lam pointed out, although the competitions are a source of scholarship money for participants, schools don't have to get that ambitious. They can keep the contests local and simply hold class-wide competitions.
After all, as the Contra Costa County ROP curriculum states, robotics engineering can teach students "basic academic skills, communication, interpersonal skills, problem solving, workplace safety, technology and employment literacy." Nobody has to make it all the way to Atlanta to work on those qualities.
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About the author: Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business for a number of publications. Contact her at dian@dischaffhauser.com.
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