“We may actually have to involve the woodworking department to actually start building us trophy cases because we are running out of room…Our kids are actually wanting to know now if they can start to build robots out of the trophies because we have more trophy parts than we have robotics parts.” Said Long.
Long says the team is about the size of a 1A or 2A marching band, with 30 students coming from ATEMS, Abilene, and Cooper High Schools. Four teacher coaches supervise them, but they say the process is entirely student-led, from concept to implementation.
“Our whole program is based on peer tutoring.” Said ATEMS teacher and robotics Coach Larry Haney.
“If you want to know who’s been training our new kids, talk to our seniors. Because they’re the ones doing the training…It is amazing as a physics teacher to hear kids arguing about physics…And they’re arguing it correctly in both directions.” Added Long.
The competitive season begins each May, and teams around the world are presented with tasks such as maneuvering colored rings onto a goal or climbing. Students begin brainstorming a robot that could feasibly complete that task in a competitive setting, then design, build, program, and relentlessly test their robot.
ATEMS Juniors Samantha Dacanay and Zizi Havard say they enjoy working together with the rest of the team, each with their own unique set of skills that contribute to the larger goal.
“As a programmer, I don’t just learn how to code; I have to learn how to build it like how it works so I can make sure everything works like one system as a whole,” Havard said.
“Building, that’s mainly the main part. Having fun prototyping and building whatever you can are some of the best parts of robotics.” Said Dacanay.
Through this peer-guided process, the students develop not only their technical skills but those in communication and teamwork. Long saying these traits they’re developing make for a resume that will serve them well. Some of their former students have gone on to pursue their PHD in relevant fields and even attend Cambridge University. Long says the Abilene Christian University NEXT Lab even tries to recruit directly from their team.
“Angelo State University actively tries to recruit our kids because they know our kids know what they’re doing. They know that our kids are critical thinkers, and they love what they see from them when they see them at the next level. And that’s kind of cool…we have students within our robotics program who are now working for Lockheed Martin, working for Ford Motor Company… doing engineering, doing things that they were doing here.” Long said.
He says even just having the VEX robotics competition on your resume is a major boost for acceptance to some college programs, as he’s seen in the past.
“A lot of the colleges, when they see VEX on a student’s resume If they’re on the bubble to get into a program, will let them into the program.” Said Long.
On Friday, January 31st, two ATEMS teams will be headed to the UIL State 4A competition against 40 robotics teams from around Texas. One month after that, two teams will attend the VEX Region 5 State Championship. At that event, they can win a trip to the VEX world championship to be among the 300 best robotics teams in the world. Long says their teams have been to the World Championship two out of the last three years, and they have reason to believe they will qualify again this year.
“Last year, we actually handed the world champions their only loss in the entire tournament. So that was a big point of pride for us.” Said Long.
ATEMS regularly hosts competitions at the AISD LIFT center and plans to hold another this year. Long stressed that the program is open to any student in AISD. Students only need to be able to attend practice after school at the LIFT center.
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