New Robotics Studio Opens, Providing a Dedicated Engineering Lab for Students

Reprinted from Traditions, Winter 2017-2018 - by Anne Dougherty, Robotics Coach
April 4, 2018

Robotics at CDH is entering into a new era with the development of dedicated engineering lab space, which will house the co-curricular Robotics program but will also be available for teachers and students to use during the school day. 

STEM teachers, technology, robotics, and administration are teaming up to expand opportunities and space where learners define the problems they want to solve and design solutions to address them. Leveraging technology, students will engage in activities and projects that expose them to design thinking, engineering, and real-world experiences. It will also provide an opportunity for students with great ideas and initiatives to collaborate with other students.

While currently in the early implementation stage, this is the beginning of an initiative at school that crosses over from classroom to after-school programming to community outreach. Our goal is
to create an incubator for students’ ideas and provide the space, community partnerships, and technology for students to explore, take risks, make mistakes, and collaborate in creative ways.

CDH Robotics Team Blends Competition with Creativity

Robotics at CDH is about fostering faith-filled, problem- solving young adults in a world that desperately needs them. Our community, our world, will be better because of it. We start with a robot but we aspire to so much more.

Through the FIRST Robotics program, our students blend competition with creativity as the team works together to build a robot to compete against other teams.

Robotics is also a great way to introduce the concept of Design Thinking and illustrate the concept that problem-solving is truly about exploring the process and not just about finding a solution.

We strive to empower students to be empathetic and compassionate creators and change-makers. We say it over and over again — FIRST Robotics is so much more than robots.

What is the CDH Robotics Team?

The Robotics team, now numbering 30 students in all grades, combines the excitement of sports competition with the rigors of science and technology. We participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition which we call: the ultimate ‘Sport for the Mind.’ High-school student participants call it “the hardest fun you’ll ever have.”

Under strict rules, limited resources, and an intense six-week time limit, teams of students are challenged to design a team “brand,” hone teamwork skills and build and program industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors.

It’s as close to real-world engineering as a student can get.

The really cool thing about FIRST Robotics Competition is that all skill levels are welcomed and needed, technical or non-technical.

This year’s competition season began in January. This year’s challenge is called ‘Power Up’ in which the teams are trapped in a vintage arcade game and must work together to score points and climb a 7-foot tower to face the boss.

This article and more are featured in the Winter 2017-2018 issue of the CDH magazine, Traditions.