SENIOR JAMIE CHEN
HAS PARTICIPATED
IN ROBOTICS SINCE
MIDDLE SCHOOL
DO THE ROBOT
Students at Junction City High School gain tech skills with robotics
W
hile technology continues to inch its
way further into our everyday lives,
a group of students at Junction City
High School (JCHS) are embracing
that trend by building robots. Yes,
robots — not the kind that will take over the world,
although they might attack your interest.
Stacey Johnson, a science teacher
at JCHS, meets with students twice a
week after school in a building near the
school’s soccer fields. Johnson, who
had no experience with robotics prior to
this endeavor, says students in robotics
programs often do better in college because
of the experience they get in the club.
“It’s not necessarily about winning,”
she says. “It’s about your attitude and
accountability, and it’s about being
respectful.”
Johnson adds, “The true spirit of
this competition is to learn design and
engineering. They understand deadlines
and testing, and when they get to the
university setting, it won’t be new to them.”
The JCHS robotics club is divided into
two teams of eight. Each team consists of
programmers, engineers, a secretary to keep
track of the funds and a captain. Johnson
says her role is mostly supervisory. The
students manage their own budget, plans and execution.
They’ve converted a classroom into a robotics lab,
using foam mats for the floor of their field and a metal
obstacle to simulate the challenges they’ll attempt to
overcome in tournament, which change every year.
“It’s fun,” says freshman engineer Quinn Barrett. “You
need to be able to rely on the other members of your team.
BY MOHAMMED ALKHADHER
On Feb. 8, the students prepared for the state qualifiers,
also known as the “Super-Qualifiers” to the Oregon
Robotics Tournament and Outreach community.
Unfortunately, due to technical issues incurred during
the bus ride, JCHS’s two teams weren’t able to recover fast
enough in Hillsboro and did not earn a seed in the state
competition.
“We had an issue where the vibration
of the bus rattled our linear slide off its
track,” Johnson says. “We just didn’t have
the time to fix it.”
While it may be difficult to imagine
what a “linear slide” looks like, or what
“track” it may have fallen off of, it only
goes to show how technical this sport is.
Is robotics a sport? A sport is defined
as an activity involving physical exertion
and skill in which an individual or team
competes against another or others for
entertainment.
“We compete, we get points, we play
with and against other teams,” says Ryan
Sherman, junior at JCH S and team captain.
JUNIOR ZOË BENNETT-WENDELL
While the team may not be competing
SAYS SHE HOPES TO MAJOR
IN POLITICAL SCIENCE AT
in the next state tournament, Johnson says,
PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY
they’ll be very busy in the off-season.
“We will clean up and reflect this
PHOTOGR APHY BY WILL TAYLOR
week,” Johnson says. “Then we take a few
weeks off before spring season.”
This spring, the team will design and build an ultimate
her third year with the robotics program at JCHS. She’s
Frisbee launcher for two cerebral palsy Life Skills
passionate about engineering but says there aren’t enough
students at JCHS. Life Skills is a Lane School District
women in the field.
program that serves students with varying disabilities
“There’s no influence to show women or empower women
from kindergarten to the age of 21.
that they, too, can do it,” Fang says. “It creates different
“The kids are getting more than winning,” Johnson
opportunities which I’ve never seen before, when you see
says. “They’re learning life lessons.” ■
engineering with other girls your age working with you.”
We have to depend on the programmers to work out all the
bugs and the programmers have to rely on you to get the
robot working.”
Barrett says he’s always enjoyed building things and
hopes to study astro-engineering or astronomy after
graduating.
Senior and team captain Jessica Fang says this is
eugeneweekly.com • February 25, 2016
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