Each week the halls here at Marion Center seem buzzing with some kind of news about the Robotics team. One may be asking, since when did we have a robotics team? Or what do they even do? Or maybe even why did they go to Texas last week? The Marion Center robotics team has undoubtedly made a name for themselves in the 2 short years they have been a part of the Marion Center family of extracurriculars. 

Established in 2021, the robotics program started with less than 20 members across 2 class periods of Intro to Robotics. In those classes the students utilized a curriculum from Carnegie Mellon University, building a small classroom robot, called the ClawBot. They also learned many core skills for engineering, programming, and robotics fabrication. Members from the original two teams competed in the VEX Robotics Competition as well as the Heritage Conference BattleBots competition. 

Although it was new to everyone, including the teacher Mr. Weiss, who formerly taught at W.A McCreery, and Rayne Elementary as the computer teacher, the season was a success. At the end of last school year, the success of the program inspired the interest to compete in larger and different competitions. This falls the enrollment for robotics classes nearly doubled. Returning students were eager to dive deep into advanced robotics and other students were excited to join the hype of the robotics program with the intro to robotics classes. This year the robotics program participated in 2 new programs in addition to the 2 from l last year. Adding Bots IQ and First Robotics to the curriculum. 

This year, Marion Centrt Robotics is compromised of about 4 different teams and this year alone has produced and competed with 5 entirely different robots for different purposes. Earlier this year, the team of Daniel Wlatermire, Tucker Penrose, and JJ Ferarro competed in the VEX Robotics Competition at Penn Trafford High School. The objective of the competition was to win the game. Each year the VEX RObtocs challenge gives everyone an equal playing field.

This spring members from the Intro to Robotics class competed in the Heritage Conference BattleBots competition. They traveled to United High School to compete against the other BattleBots in the conference. The team of Travis Midok, Braden Rechinbach, Sullivan McGraw, and Trenton Graff placed in the top 5. To rewatch the battle bots action, click here.

“Honestly, I only joined robotics last year because my first was in it, but now I enjoy it for what it is, and I am beyond glad that I joined,” said Mackenzie Thomas in an interview. 

The advanced robotics curriculum is based around the BotsIQ Combat Robotics. 2 teams have worked to design, build, and program a 15-pound combat robot and then take it to battle other robots addition to the construction and programming of the robot the students also had to put career readiness skills to the test. Through the course of the semester, a project timeline needed to be constricted, each member had to produce a resume highlighting their robotics and manufacturing experiences, each member need to write a cover letter, and all of the members needed to participate in an industry tour of a manufacturing company, the students needed to come up with a safety plan to be put in place, and a marketing plan needed to be written.

“The people at all of the competitions are just so nice, and they’re always willing to help out other teams. It’s different than what I expected, buts it a good different” A.J Lynn told the Stinger News. 

The team of Nathan Druchel, Chase Coaches, Randell Smith, and Daniel Waltermire competed in the qualifying round of BotsIQ in early March. The team of J.J Ferarro, Tucker Penrsoe, Mackenzie Thomas, A.J Lynn, Ryan Dicken, and Paul Smith competed there as well. Both teams will be competing in the BotsIQ final at Penn West University California Campus on April 28th and 29th.

New this year was the addition of the robotics club, which meets once every other week for 40 minutes. This club allows students who may not have had room in their schedules for robotics to participate in the robotics program, and for the students who already have robotics classes to be able to supplement their learning with an extra-circular. The robotic club revolved around one competition this year. The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology robotics competition.) “

“Combining the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. We call FIRST Robotics Competition the ultimate Sport for the Mind. High-school student participants call it “the hardest fun you’ll ever have.” Under strict rules, limited time, and resources, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, 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.”

 This competition is unlike anything any school in our area has competed in before. Before beginning, the club officers knew it was going to be challenging not only to fund an endeavor of this caliper but also to make time for such a big project. 

In the winter, the robotics club fundraised by creating custom Christmas ornaments. All students were able to help with a project, from creating designs in Photoshop to working on the back end of the website, to the packaging of the final product. The ornaments were a hit!

Starting in January, the 22 robotics club members worked diligently to construct and test the robot that would be traveling to Pittsburgh to compete. Due to funding, only a select number of students were able to attend the FIRST Robotics competition in Pittsburgh over Easter break. The 7 students chosen to participate in the trip were based on the number of hours of work each student put into the robot.

The team of  JJ Ferarro, Anthony Lynn, Nathan Druschel, Seth Juart Tucker Penrose, Daniel Waltermire, and Risecen McGinnis competed with the bot that they have come to name Larry, after the quote from SpongeBob “Livin’ like Larry.” In Pittsburgh, they were faced with some of the biggest competition they had ever seen. Teams from Florida, Michigan, and other states all across the US traveled to Steel City in hopes of qualifying for the world championships in Texas. And that is exactly what the boys from Marion Center did.

“It was a lot more competitive than what people might think.” Risecen McGinnis said in an interview.

“Even though Pittsburgh is pretty close, it was like a whole other world compared to Marion Center,” Daniel Waltermire said. “Other competitions are relatively small, but this competition was huge. There were a lot of people, a lot of noise, it was very exhilarating.”

Victories did not come easy for the team. Throughout the process of putting together the bot and competing, many challenges arose. A challenge the team experienced was a malfunction at the competition in Pittsburgh, but other teams in FIRST were more than willing to help out their fellow competitors.

“It was kind of a pain,” Boring said, “because we had to drill out all of the rivets to take out the acrylic piece we had to secure the arm, and we had to rewire the entire motor that another team graciously lent to us. We had to do all of that in a half hour before our next competition.”

They left Pittsburgh with the Rookie All-Star award and secured themselves a spot in Houston. With only a week to notice before Houston, family members of some of the members took to social media and created a goFundMe for the team to ensure they would have adequate funding for the trip. They received so many generous donations and so much support from the community. They even made the front page of the Indiana Gazette(click here to check that article out) and were featured on the radio for an interview. (Click here to check the interview out)      

Undoubtedly the robotics program here at Marion Center has made a name for itself and provided an outlet for students who may not have had one before. As it continues to grow and develop there is no telling what can be accomplished in the STEAM lab. Although some of the robotics will not be offered for the 2023-2024 school year, the Robotics Club will be operating in its regular club schedule and will be accepting new members in the fall. Marion Center Robotics would like to thank everyone for all of their support and cannot wait to continue to grow!