printer-friendly
inquiry
Olympics of the mind
Two Bethel students who loved robotics in high school now volunteer with their former team.
by Melanie Zuercher
Not many high school extracurriculars keep drawing student participants back after graduation. But how many of them can lead you all the way to “an Olympics of the mind”?
That’s how Bethel sophomores Justin Beth and Ashley Klein describe the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). Their alma mater, Newton High School, competes in FRC as RaileRobotics/Team 935, for which both Ashley and Justin now serve as alumni volunteers.
Dean Kamen – internationally known for developing what became the Segway PT “human transporter” – founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989. With a goal of encouraging youth to get interested and involved in science, technology and engineering, FIRST sponsors a number of robotics programs and challenges for different age levels.
Justin and Ashley were part of the RaileRobotics team as juniors and seniors in high school, with Justin concentrating on building the robot and Ashley on the team website, though both are quick to point out that everyone gets involved in a little of everything, especially during competitions.
Spring is robotics’ most intense season. In early January, all teams planning to go to any regional competitions later in the year receive the game challenge for building their robot. They have six weeks to do it. Then the robot is boxed up and shipped away and they aren’t allowed to see it until regional competition.
Kansas teams usually go to Dallas, Kansas City and/or Oklahoma City for regionals. The international event takes place this year in St. Louis, April 29-May 1.
So for six weeks, the team pretty well lives and breathes robotics, heading over to the machine shop in the Brooks Technology Center behind Newton High School after class or work to brainstorm, plan, experiment, build, test, sometimes fail and then do it all again.
“It’s like a family for six weeks,” Justin says. “As a high school student, I spent more time with robotics than my family during build season – evenings and then Saturdays and Sunday afternoons toward the end.”
“He was very passionate about it,” says Justin’s mother, Cindy Beth ’80. “He lived and breathed robotics during the build season. He’d come home and he’d still tinker with things at home. It was interesting to watch him process and think about it – it was clear his brain was going on it all the time.”
Ashley dabbled in robotics as a high school freshman but didn’t get really involved until she was a junior when, she says, “I made a deal with Tyler Brown: I wanted him in High School Musical and he wanted me to [be in] robotics.”
Ashley put most of her energy into the website, which is an important communication tool for the team and parents, sponsors and other supporters. “I basically rebuilt the website,” Ashley says, and Justin notes, “She made vast improvements – it works now, and can be maintained by anyone.”
As much as they liked build season, for both Justin and Ashley, the competitions were the crowning event in all senses of the term. Dozens of teams from across the region came together to see which robot would come closest to achieving the objectives of that season’s game.
“The atmosphere at the competition is really intense and exciting,” Justin says.
That’s part of why he was ready to keep going with RaileRobotics, having competed as a high school student only two years. “I still know people on the team,” he says. “I still feel like I’m part of it. The students do the work – they design the robot and how they want it to work. As alumni, we’re there to answer questions and point out potential problems.” That’s especially important with the high number of freshmen on this year’s team, he says.
Ashley agreed to volunteer “because they asked me, plus it’s nice to help out. We had alumni come to help us [as high schoolers].”
In addition to alumni, robotics team parents put in volunteer hours as well, bringing supper to the team each night during build season and attending the competitions.
Cindy and Chuck Beth went to the three regionals that Justin was part of, two in Kansas City and one in Dallas. “It’s like one big party,” Cindy says. “There’s so much energy and camaraderie along with the competition. The schools bring mascots, and there’s music and dancing. It’s just fun to watch.”
They hope to go to the international FRC in St. Louis later this spring. The RaileRobotics team won the Oklahoma City regional in 2010, which meant they could go to the 2010 international competition in Atlanta or wait for a later one. They opted for the latter, so no matter how they do in regionals this year, they’ll go to St. Louis if they can raise the money needed.
The Beths’ friends and fellow church small group members Allen ’84 and Joni ’85 Jantz, whose son Dylan is now in his fourth season with RaileRobotics and serves as team captain this year, have been attending FRC events, either in person or via the Internet, for several years as well.
Allen has enjoyed watching Dylan “develop and practice his leadership skills” as a result of his participation in robotics. “Instead of doing it all himself, he has to be able to delegate to others. He has to know a little of everything and manage without micromanaging.”
And there’s more to being on the team than building a robot every year. “They have to develop a business plan, raise money to attend competitions [around $37,000 so far this year] by speaking to groups and organizations, and share with younger kids” in order to recruit for the team, Allen says.
Nor is there any telling what robotics can lead to. Both Ashley and Justin are in a natural science track at Bethel; Justin is interested in chemistry, too. However, neither feels drawn to engineering, though they’ve seen other alumni go on to careers in that field.
For Justin, it’s the challenge of problem solving that draws him. “Robotics is about building robots,” he notes, “but it opens up so many other avenues of science study.”