The Seaquam Secondary school robotics club had become so popular, teacher Bryce Hamade incorporated robots into the curriculum, as part of his industrial design course.

“Students were asking me to stay after school every day. I realized they needed more time. Now students can work on their robotics, programming and machine safety during class time.”

Hamade was surprised how many learning outcomes robotics covered. Students learn to design, program and control the robot, develop communication and teamwork skills, and have their work judged by professional engineers at each competition.

This April, one of Seaquam’s teams made it all the way to the World Robotics High School Competition in Louisville, Kentucky. The five-person team – Michael Milic, Dawson Pasin, Bradley Schellenberg, Trevor Chow and Josh Zindler – had already finished first among 100 teams that competed in the B.C. Provincial Robotics Championship.

“We didn’t know what to expect. We’d never gone to the World Championships before. It was a massive event. One hundred robots were there. The opening ceremonies had over 20,000 people in the stadium,” said Hamade. The international event had teams from Mexico, the United Kingdom, China, Colombia, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Based on a point score, Seaquam was placed in one of the strongest competition divisions. They stayed in the top 10 on the leaderboard for the qualifying rounds. While they did not receive a medal in playoffs, they did defeat the team from Gladstone Secondary school in Vancouver, a personal best for these Delta school district students.

Michael, Dawson, Bradley, Trevor and Josh had been working on their robot since June 2015. The scope of the competition changes each year, so students cannot reuse their robots. For the 2015-16 school year, the robots had to be able to pick up high-density foam balls and score them in a 1.5-metre (five-foot) high triangular net.

During competition, 100 balls were let loose on the playing field. The team with the highest score won.

In addition to programming and design, the students had to consider speed and strategy. “At the start of the school year, the robots that could actually get the ball into the high net were the teams that were winning. By the end of the school year, all the teams had figured it out and it became about speed and defence,” said Hamade, who notes his team also scouts and ranks the competitors at each event.

“When I run a normal engineering class, students only have one shot to build a project. With robotics, you can continually rebuild and work through the design process,” said Hamade. Michael, Dawson, Bradley, Trevor and Josh rebuilt their robot five times. “Teams go back to research, drawing and design. It’s really good for students to prepare them for university engineering programs.”

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