Farmington High School math teacher, Gretchen Greer shared on April 3 that the robotics club includes both drones and student-built robots.
“(It’s) a club that does VEX Robotics where the kids build robots," Greer said. "This year, our club has expanded to include drones.”
Farmington High School is a public school located in New Mexico which is providing more opportunities for students to learn robotics.
According to KOB 4, kids are now learning to build robots and fly drones. The students incorporate a game into flying the drones by using them to direct balls in a certain direction. While there is a great amount of fun associated with the game aspect in order to facilitate the game, the students must incorporate both math and science.
"There is math and science behind it, even though this looks like pure fun," Greer said. “They also have a coding element where each team is given a minute, and by just using the code they prepare on their computer; they press play and have the drone score points on its own."
The students break off into teams with a competitive spirit onto a 24-by-24-foot field where multiple drones are flown at once. In the spirit of competition, the teams' objective is to outscore the other.
Greer explained that the students approach flying the drone in a specific order.
"The drones take off from the sides, there are four, two red, two blue," Greer said. "They try to move these little colored ping pong balls out and score points."
Michelle Thur, an enrichment and gifted coordinator for the district shared that this club opens doors for students in their futures.
“There are so many opportunities career-wise, coding is just a part of so many fields these days, so this gives them those skill sets that they can take with them and find what they really want to do," Thur said.
Students share the same enthusiasm for applying their skills to their future career opportunities. The robotics club aids students to look toward what's next.
Damien Nelson, a Farmington High School junior shared that he specifically enjoys the mechanics of the Robotics Club.
“I would like to go into engineering, mechanical engineering," Nelson said. "It got me really interested and hooked onto it, and the building part, I like to build things.”
“I started learning that there is coding involved and ended up being really good at it, so I decided to stick with it."