FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE from the Moffat County School District.
Bulldog Bark: Robotics Helps Grow Kids
Moffat County School District believes in developing students in all kinds of different ways. Of course, core academics are critical—reading, writing, math, science, social studies. And at MCSD, we love the arts. Music, performance art, visual arts—a great student needs creativity to unlock his or her full potential. But there are other opportunities for students to grow and develop, too. Athletics, DECA, FBLA, Agriculture, career pathways. Every one of these avenues for learning is critical. Yet another incredible opportunity provided to MCSD students is Robotics.
Robotics is primarily an extracurricular activity. Students participating in Robotics are grouped into teams and work with a coach after school to build, practice, and prepare for competitions. One of those coaches is Ridgeview teacher Ty Kuberry.
“Robotics teaches kids how to design and build something to complete a challenge,” Kuberry said. “The engineering process of design, build, try it out, and reflect teaches them a lot of life lessons. They have to learn to be tenacious and never give up. When the solution they tried doesn’t work or partly works they get to keep trying until they get it.”
Another MCSD Robotics coach is Sunset teacher Allison LeWarne.
“It teaches students how to deal with failure in a positive way, the importance of deadlines, and how to adapt to different situations,” LeWarne said. “It teaches them to stick with things and solve problems.”
Robotics students literally build robots, then operate them. These robots have certain parameters and options included in their materials, and there are endless customization options available to the students to prepare their robots to complete the designated tasks in competition.
“Students also get to learn to work with others and how to be a good team player,” Kuberry said. “Robotics isn’t an individual activity, and the better they work with others, the more successful they will be. They need to be able to listen to each other, problem solve together, and recognize the strengths of their teammates.”
LeWarne also sees the teamwork-building element of Robotics for her students.
“One of the aspects that I love the most is the teamwork challenges,” she said. “These challenges group students with the opposing teams. The two teams have to communicate their strengths and weaknesses and make a plan to fit the specific needs of the pairing.”
Perseverance, hard work, goal setting, accountability are all pieces of the puzzle as well.
“Robotics starts in November and doesn’t end for some until March,” Kuberry said. “Some students choose to come in before school, during lunch and attend all extra practices throughout the year to get the work done. Once the robot is finished there is more work to do! Coding, engineering notebooks and preparing for interviews. The competitions teach students to work well under pressure, organize their thoughts and work into a notebook, and be able to share their hard work through an interview.”
Additional to all those lessons, Robotics is yet another way Moffat County students have an opportunity to build friendship and connection.
“It provides students from different schools opportunities to make connections with other students in their community,” LeWarne said.