By Kaitlin Candelaria
Robotics is no longer reserved for big laboratories and men in white coats. In fact, robotics clubs are popping up at local high schools all over the state.
Spain Park High School is no stranger to a robotics club. Its BEST Robotics program has taken the best overall award at the local level for the past several years. The local Blazer BEST Robotics competition includes more than two dozen schools from the central Alabama area. The winner of that competition advances to the BEST South Regional Championships, hosted in Auburn each year.
For those who think this is a bunch of kids tinkering with toys, think again. BEST – which stands for boosting engineering, science and technology – Robotics Inc. is a national nonprofit that pushes students to pursue careers in related fields such as science and engineering.
According to the official website, there are two aspects to any BEST competition – designing, building and programming a functional robot as well as demonstrating the concept of boosting engineering, science and technology.
Each year, the students are given a theme to build their robot around. To compete for the BEST Award, they must create an oral presentation, an educational display and a project engineering notebook, all while demonstrating spirit and sportsmanship.
Seniors who participate in the Engineering Academy at Spain Park High School are required to compete in the BEST Robotics program. However, the students say the club is open to anyone who would like to join.
“I’m the youngest of five and three of my older siblings participated in the robotics program,” said Crawford Nakayama, a senior. “I’ve always been a math and science person and engineering has always been interesting to me.”
Nakayama is one of 50 students who participate in Spain Park’s robotics club. Having that many people work together on a project of this magnitude isn’t without its challenges.
“The biggest challenge is time,” said Katharine Turnbull, a sophomore. She and several other students are in charge of compiling the project engineering notebook for the BEST competition. “Some things you can’t get done until the last minute and so you’re up the last night trying to get everything printed out.”
Working on a deadline isn’t the only skill set the students pick up. Students such as Peyton Spencer, a senior, are in charge of the 3D modeling and have to use programs such as SolidWorks, whereas other students such as Winter Scott are in charge of doing outreach and coordinating public relations around the project.
“The communication has been the hardest part, for me at least,” said senior Chris Breaux. “I’m the BEST CEO and I’ve worked with our table display for the past three years, and this year I had this great vision for what we’re going to do, and it’s so hard to explain everything and what I’m thinking to everyone else.”
This year’s theme is “Pay Dirt,” or mining. The students are charged with designing a robot and essentially trying to market it to companies as the best tool for their needs. The theme was announced six weeks ahead of the Blazer BEST competition.
Although creating the intricate robot as well as the materials required for the BEST presentation takes a lot of work on the students’ part – they meet three times a week after school – they enjoy the process.
“My favorite part is seeing everything come together,” said Luke Boyett, a senior and robot CEO. “We’ve been stressed out for weeks and now we have a robot that can do everything that we wanted.”
The participants say they’ve learned a lot while working together on this year’s competition.
“Communicating your ideas on paper is one of the best things I’ve taken away from this,” said senior Patrick Himes, who is overall CEO. “You can think all you want in your mind but if you can’t communicate that to your peers who are going to be working and helping you make that a reality, it’s impossible to get it done.”
Charlie Teague, a senior, agrees. “You have to entertain ideas other than your own,” he said. “In the engineering program itself, you learn so many life skills. We even focused on public speaking at one point.”
Because their program is so established, Spain Park students visit other area schools with new programs and help them troubleshoot different aspects. One of their members, Spencer Batten, is known for helping other schools and teams with emergency programming issues.
“I end up getting handed a phone with someone who needs help so I end up talking to different people (from other schools) every day about different problems they may be having,” he said. Last year, Batten had a hotline on the day of the competition for students who were having last-minute problems. This year, he’s taken it a step further and set up www.sphsrobotics.com, where students can live chat with him about programming issues.
The Spain Park BEST Robotics team will head to UAB on Oct. 10 to face off against dozens of other schools, including The Altamont School, Berry Middle, Briarwood Christian, Homewood High and Middle, John Carroll, Mountain Brook Junior High and High, Oak Mountain Middle and High, Prince of Peace Catholic, Riverchase Middle, Simmons Middle and the Westminster School at Oak Mountain. The winner will go on to Auburn to compete in early December.
