First Robotics Team at Hitchcock ISD off to running start

Crosby Middle School’s newly formed Robotics Team, the first-ever robotics team in Hitchcock ISD, is preparing for its first-ever competition this weekend.

During the 2022 summer, 12-year teacher Megan Stall and 7-year teacher Lacy Williams worked with district administration to secure funding for the team as well as registering the team to compete in the First Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition series, a robotics competition series for seventh through 12th grade students.

At the beginning of this school year, the team accepted their first students, named the “RoboDogs”.

The RoboDogs’ team is divided into 4 groups: Programming, Building, Coding, and Marketing. The programming group designs code telling the robot what to do, the building group is building the robot itself, including 3-D printing parts for the robot, the coding group implements the actual code sending signals to their robot to perform specific tasks and the marketing group is in charge of securing sponsors and merchandise for the team.

This weekend, Stall and Williams will take the 12 members of the team to their first-ever robotics competition of the season in Houston. Here, students will compete both as an individual team and alongside other teams.

“In competition, we are able to earn points for our robot completing certain tasks such as moving cones as well as our portfolio,” said Stall. “This outlines our experience creating the robot, each student’s role as well as our ‘game plan’ going into competition.”

To join the team, students had to complete a logical reasoning activity to show a basic understanding of the concepts they would be working on when designing their robot. Due to the FIRST Competition series’ grade requirements, the team is currently open only to seventh and eighth grade students.

Stall and Williams are looking to expand the team to allow sixth grade students to join by registering for the FIRST Lego League next year. They also want to allow students a way to stay on the team after they transition to Hitchcock High School.

“The most important thing about this team is that it’s a great opportunity for our students to learn new, real-world skills beyond competition,” said Williams. “They are learning how to use professional CAD equipment, use JavaScript coding programs, learning to 3-D print, and how to market themselves professionally. All of these skills will be essential for them when they enter the real-world whether it’s going to college, getting a job, or joining the military.”

For more information about the team, contact Megan Stall at mstall@hitchcockisd.org or Lacy
Williams at lwilliams@hitchcockisd.org.

First Robotics Team at Hitchcock ISD off to running start.pdf