For the past two months, room 103 has been buzzing with activity as the Senior Robotics Team is hard at work, preparing for the upcoming competition. This year, our robot will have to place ring-shaped game pieces on posts around the playing field in order to capture stations which have been arranged in a 3 by 3 tic-tac-toe grid. Capturing a row of three of these stations will win our team bonus points at the end of the match. The design and building process has been both fun and challenging as we have tried to make a robot that is both fast enough to capture many stations before the other teams’ robots, while still being able to place the game pieces on the posts with precision.
I am very proud of the robot team’s commitment. We’ve come into school to work on weekends and even on Ped Days, for sessions that last almost as long as a regular school day! Of course, it’s not as draining as a typical day at school. The atmosphere is much more relaxed as we put on some music and work with our friends on a project that genuinely interests us. Also, since we have a lot more time during the weekend sessions than during the ones after school on Wednesdays, the bulk of the work gets done on the weekend. Without these extra sessions, our robot would definitely not be finished in time for the competition!
Speaking of which, with the competition being held in February this year instead of in April like it was last year, we will only have around 2 months after the end of the winter break to finish our robot. These 2 months will also be filled with important events that could slow the progress of our robot such as midterm exams, the Grade 11 New York Trip and Science Fair. However, our team captain, Peyton M., remains hopeful. “The competition is much sooner than last year, but I feel that we are much farther ahead this time, and I think that we have some good ideas to work on for the new year.” While the months after the winter holidays will certainly be hectic, I am confident that we will be well prepared to give a solid performance at the competition.
By: Ian R-H.
