Robot School 6.0

Ah, Robot School.  I claim credit here, as it was pretty much my invention.  I'd been working with middle school students for years doing basic DIY robot stuff.  When the high school FIRST Robotics team started up we had no "farm system".  Alumni of the earlier after school programs turned up, but as the complexity increased we needed more students, and students who knew more.

In the summer of 2019 I just invited a batch of kids to come do a bit of summer work with the high school team.  They'd just finished 6th, 7th, or 8th grade.  My fellow coaches thought I was crazy.  Hey, fair point, I think that myself at times.

The name?  Well, my first grandson was pretty young at the time and thought that what we were doing with robots was pretty cool.  He coined the phrase Robot School and somehow it stuck.

In general about half the middle school kids we work with go on to the high school team.  Of that initial group we had a future team captain, a couple of valedictorians, a national merit scholar and a girl who won Dean's List, the highest award in FIRST Robotics.

That was Robot School 1.0.  Covid of course imploded the entire edifice of public education, so it was not until summer of 2021 that we ran RS-2.  This was an official summer school offering.  Another outstanding group, the core of a team that came inches from going to Worlds two years later.

2022 was an off year.  We moved our build space to the more accommodating environs of the middle school tech ed area.  That allowed us to run after school versions of Robot School in fall of 2023 and 2024.  Smaller groups, and perhaps reflecting the post Covid learning crater, fewer kids stepping up with the ability and industry to do technology way beyond high school levels.

For 2025 we decided, what the heck.  I've reported on our successful summer build (Robot School 5.0) and now we are back with the biggest group to date.  15 students.  And 9 instructors ranging from ancient geezers, me, to members of the high school team.  The middle school kids learn a lot more from them.  And from each other.

A few photos from the swirling chaos of adolescents with power tools....

OK, that last one was of me just prior to delivering the eulogy for Ketchup, the robot they were about to dismantle for parts.  When hats were doffed I spoke the traditional words for such occasions:

"Bolts to bolts.  Widgets to widgets.  From parts it came and to parts it shall return.  Amen."