Haddonfield Memorial High School students have participated for the first time in a new VEX Robotics Club started earlier this year by computer science teacher Bethany Lau.
Lau first got involved with the robotics program 13 years ago, when two of her students at Cherry Hill East also requested a team. She left the school shortly after and spent 10 years raising her family, but the program continued to evolve under the leadership of Joe Dilks and is now one of the largest in South Jersey.
In Haddonfield, Lau got support for a new team from the school district and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Gino Priolo, who helped find funding for initial robotics sets and the field on which robots drive. Borough students competed in their first robotics competition at East on Dec. 10.
Their robotics club has three teams, and within each, students work together to build, program and control robots that later face off against other teams in the state. Lau explained that each year has a new “game” with new competition rules. One example is the need for a robot to throw acorn-sized balls into a net across the field to earn points.
This year’s game is Over Under, and according to the VEX Robotics website, students earn points by scoring Triballs into goals and elevating at the end of the match.
“What I love about it is it’s a team activity for all sorts of students,” Lau noted. ” … It becomes a very social activity for a lot of kids, where they find a place (to) gain skills with other like-minded students.”
The new club has enabled students to gain skills in programming; mechanical engineering; and driving, meaning directing or controlling a robot once it’s been built and programmed. The club currently has three robot kits along with its three teams. Kits include metal, motors, nuts, bolts, motors and other materials that help students build and customize their robots. They can also customize robots between tournaments.
“It’s a very collaborative game in a way,” Lau explained. “In some states, it’s considered a sport, and students are in groups where they work together to make it happen.”
Robotics has been offered at the middle-school level for 14 years via the SeaPerch Robotics Club headed by advisor Kevin Kozak, and a group that has existed for the last two years at the high school thanks to two passionate students who wanted to continue it after middle school.
“The biggest difference between the VEX robotics program and SeaPerch would be the water,” Kozak pointed out. “The SeaPerch Robotics program focuses on naval engineering, which specifically focuses on underwater robotics.
“In both programs,” he added, “there is a major focus on teamwork, collaboration, the engineering design process and following the real-world design steps that allow for a prototype to become a working solution to a problem.”
The Haddonfield Middle School robotics team finished first and won the Engineering Process and Make a Splash awards at the Greater Philadelphia SeaPerch Challenge last March.
Both the SeaPerch and VEX robotics teams have about 25 students The latter will participate in a competition next month and in others before April, when the rules for the next year will be announced. The SeaPerch team will compete for the first time at the end of March.
“All of my students and myself included describe our SeaPerch teams as much more than a club or a team, but our own little family,” Kozak said. “We spend so much time together and get to know each other so well, that we become much than teammates or just friends.
” … Watching the members of this team move on into STEM majors and further on into STEM careers gives me more joy than I can describe,” he added. “This helps make the countless hours, late nights and stress all worthwhile.”
