Class act: Building a better robot in Travis Unified
Published: March 17, 2011
In the fall of 2000, when students in Doug Green’s physics class at Vanden High School in the Travis Unified School District proposed designing and building a robot to enter a statewide competition in Los Angeles the following March, the teacher had little confidence that this particular robotic dream would ever come true.
“It didn’t seem very realistic,” recalls Green. “I have a background in physics, but I had no idea how to build a robot. We don’t even have a metal shop at the school.”
Looking at the daunting size of the challenge, it’s easy to understand Green’s doubts.
Vanden students would have just two months to build a robot, a task requiring a variety of skills—including mechanical engineering, three-dimensional design, computer programming, metal fabrication and electronic wiring—and about 100 pounds of materials. Typically these competitions require students to build a robot capable of handling specific tasks, and teams vie to see whose robot performs best.
There was also the matter of logistics and finances. Who would pay for the necessary equipment and tools, not to mention entry fees and travel expenses needed to transport a hefty robotic contestant and more than a dozen students, teachers and chaperones from Solano County to Southern California?
“Against my advice, my students entered the contest,” Green says.
Despite the obstacles, the idea quickly took hold, and Green found the resources needed to launch the fledgling RoboVikes robotics club (named to incorporate the school’s Vikings mascot with the club’s robotic mission).
For help getting started, Green contacted FIRST—For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology—a national nonprofit organization that inspires young people to become science and technology leaders by engaging them in exciting programs like robotics competitions. Vanden’s industrial arts teacher, John Poe, volunteered to lend his expertise to the project. The enthusiastic students themselves approached the local Rotary Club and the Frank and Eva Buck Foundation, raising $5,000 for materials, travel and entry fees.
The RoboVikes’ first robot exceeded its creators’ most optimistic expectations, reaching the regional semifinals and bringing home the third-place award against teams sponsored by technological heavyweights like NASA and Xerox. Since then, Vanden’s robotics program has expanded dramatically. Green wrote a curriculum and established robotics as an academic course, Principles in Engineering and Robotics, that’s coordinated with the Solano County Regional Occupational Program and meets Travis USD’s career pathways goals and University of California admission requirements.
RoboVikes teams won a number of regional honors for their robotic design and performance—and for outreach to other schools—over the years, and in 2003 the team entered its first national competition. The program won a CSBA Golden Bell Award in 2009.
“The program has steadily matured year by year,” says Vanden principal Stephen Liles. “It’s been a huge success for us because it has practical and vocational applications, in addition to the many academic benefits. Students get to travel and connect with peers from across the country, and to build the camaraderie and team-building that comes from working together. They develop life skills and college preparatory skills that connect to the real world.”
Especially important in these grim economic times, Liles says, the program is self-supporting thanks to a foundation established by parents and other team supporters that generates $50,000 a year to help with expenses.
Nearly 200 students have participated in Vanden’s program so far—almost 40 percent of them female. Students say they learn as much about collaboration and leadership as they do about metal fabrication, programming, digital design and welding.
A post on the team website by former RoboVikes student Eric Smith describes some of the benefits of his three years in a program that “presented an opportunity to experience life as it will eventually be: hard working, close deadlines, team members you will love or hate but with whom you’ll have to get along with regardless.”
“I enjoy all the things I’m doing in the program,” he continues, “learning how to put together transmissions, how to do electrical and how to put all this to use in the creation of a robot.”
—Carol Brydolf
Who: RoboVikes physics and engineering teams
What: Principles in Engineering and Robotics Program
When: since 2000
Where: Vanden High School, Travis Unified School District in Solano County
Why: to teach real world mechanical skills, team building, collaboration and leadership
More: www.vandenrobotics.com