BHS robotics team gears up for third stellar season

Published 11:05 am Friday, March 18, 2016

In this sport, everyone can go pro.

Actually, it would be a good thing for all of us if more of them did.

Unlike more traditional high school sports, wherein the collegiate and professional talent pool can only support so many, competitive robotics – the “sport of the mind,” as players know it – can advance every single participating student into advanced study in the fields of design, computer programing, information technology and engineering and, far from an overcrowded field, the world would be better for it.

We could always use more smart people; more makers, more doers.

Now in its third year, the award-winning Bainbridge High School robotics team, the Spartronics, boasts about 53 such students. The Spartronics historically introduced FIRST – For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a not-for-profit public charity which designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math – and FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) to the Bainbridge Island School District in 2013, and has since quickly risen to become a known powerhouse in the sport. The BHS team went all the way to the FIRST World Championships in its first two years, accumulated many other accolades and awards as well and began something of a robotics revolution on the Rock.

Today, Bainbridge also has four FIRST Lego League (for elementary and middle school-aged students) and two FIRST Tech Challenge (middle and high school-aged students design, build and program a robot to play a floor game against other schools) teams, spreading a passionate interest in competitive robotics and STEM programs through students in grades four through twelve.

Leading the BHS team is head coach and physics teacher Enrique Chee, along with about 15 dedicated professional mentors who volunteer time and expertise in various technical fields to assist the students with the design, programing and construction of their robot.

The competitive robotics season kicks off on the first Saturday in January every year. The new year’s game and playing field are unveiled and teams receive a “Kickoff Kit” made up of donated items and components and only limited instructions. Working with their mentors, students then have six weeks to design, build, program and test their robots to meet the season’s unique engineering challenge. Then begins the real challenge as teams participate in one or more of the regional and district-wide events which measure the effectiveness of each robot and the determination of the students, all looking to earn their team’s place at the culminating world championship event.

Returning Spartronics team members Aila Ikuse, Jennifer Allen and Jonathan Coonan explained during the team’s recent open house that the Bainbridge team’s quick success in the field was due to the quality of the adult mentors and the instant support of the community, something that not all of the other teams they play against enjoy.

“Really what drives us is this massive, massive support from the community,” Coonan said. “It’s something that fits this island really well because we have such a great tech community across the water, we have such a big artistic community here and they just meld together and drive success in this particular field.”

“We get the word out there and we have a lot of fun,” Allen agreed, pointing to the team’s marketing subteam’s work on the club’s website and social media platforms as another way they interact with prospective members and the community at large.

Visit www.spartronics4915.com to learn more, see videos and get the most updated Spartronics news.

Something else many other teams don’t enjoy is quite so many female participants. Nearly a quarter of the Spartronics roster is made up of girls, a percentage which has increased every year since the team’s formation.

“I never thought that I could do robotics,” said Ikuse, director of the club’s marketing subteam. “We were never encouraged or exposed to this sort of thing in the first place.

“As young girls we’re given Barbies and not Legos to play with,” she added. “I don’t really want to call it sexism, it’s just sort of gender roles. I was never encouraged or exposed to that in the first place, so getting girls in STEM now is a big, big deal to us because it gets them back in the game. It gets them back into catching them up on what we missed out on.”

The team’s first competitive event of the year took place at Glacier Peak High School on Saturday, March 12 and Sunday, March 13.

Additional competitions take place nearly every weekend until the Pacific Northwest Championship event in Portland next month.