Growing STEM: Cleveland area students learn skills competing with robots
For 25 years, the FIRST Robotics Competition's Buckeye Regional has brought together thousands of students to test, build, and compete with robots they made. The FIRST Robotics Competition's Buckeye Regional has been taking place for 25 years, with 50 high school teams from seven states including Ohio. The event involves students from high school to test, build, and compete with robots they made. Students have been described as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by students who have never done robotics. Volunteers and mentors from corporations like Sherwin-Williams guide students through engineering problems. The students develop leadership skills through their participation in the competition.
Published : 4 weeks ago by Jeff Reidel in Tech Science
For 25 years, the FIRST Robotics Competition's Buckeye Regional has brought together thousands of students to test, build, and compete with robots they made.
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CLEVELAND — It’s a fast-paced, big-energy, high-tech sporting event putting 50 high school teams from seven states (including Ohio) in the spotlight. Whether a rookie team or long-time pro, the Buckeye Regional at the Wolstein Center are intense.
"Not many people actually get to do this, so this is actually kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime thing," remarked Callyah Velton, a freshman at MC2STEM High School in Cleveland.
"I'm looking forward to this for like months in advance," sophomore Kyle Williams added. "Every time the season's over, I'm just like, 'Man, I want to go back."
"I'm excited," Anelia Gonzalez, a junior at CMSD's Garrett Morgan School of Engineering & Innovation, stated. "I've never been a part of a team like this, and we worked really hard to get to where we are right now."
It's taken months of preparation at the Great Lakes Science Center to get six Cleveland teams ready for two days of competition. Volunteers and mentors from corporations like Sherwin-Williams guide students through engineering problems.
"We have students who have never done robotics, and initially they're very shy and timid and they're like, 'You know, I know nothing about robotics, so how do I help out here?'" Arley Trujillo, a teacher at the John Marshall School of Information Technology, told 3News. "But after the first week, they're really excited to get their hands on the robot."
"The robot is doing great, but this is our first time driving it," Gonzalez said. "So we're kind of having a hard time maneuvering."
"The students get to develop these leadership skills," Trujillo explained. "Obviously they're working with their friends, but at some point, the robot gets to get built and tough decisions have to be made, so they have to learn how to make tough decisions."
"We actually built a family with our robotics team," Velton said. "We learned a lot together, we built together, and we learned how to work together."
"So it was really nice to work as a team, and it ranges from ninth-graders to 12th-graders," Gonzalez remarked. "So we're all in it together."