Since mid-November, five teams made up of over thirty GA students have been tirelessly working on designing, creating, and competing with their robots. With help from faculty advisors Mr. Michael Rheam and Ms. Diane Goldstein, both US science teachers, started out the season by researching and developing ideas on how to make a robot that could complete specific, complex tasks. They then spent weeks physically building and coding these robots in preparation for multiple competitions.
The teams had practices daily and came in during free time to work on their bots, making sure every detail was up to their expectations in preparation for the competitions. Several weekends this season, teams participated in competitions across the Greater Philadelphia area.
The climax of their season was the state competition at Norristown High School on Saturday, March 14th and Sunday, March 15th. While not every team’s hard work allowed them to reach the competition, two teams were able to qualify by performing well at regional competitions. At states, one of these teams achieved the creative award for tackling their challenges in an ambitious and creative way, placing 9th out of over 60 teams. The other team placed 28th.
Overall, students, even those who didn’t make it to states, enjoyed spending time with teammates and creating their bots. Additionally, many students gained and developed skills through robotics this season such as teamwork, design and technical development.
“I think this season went great,” said Saanvi Bayireddi ‘28. “I definitely took away skills in organization and collaboration with people of different grade levels and different backgrounds.”
Mr. Rheam and Ms. Goldstein made the program more enjoyable and were able to assist in the creation of the robots. The two leaders both contributed to the students’ successes, experiences, and newfound skills.
“Genuinely, people learned a lot,” Ms. Goldstein said. “Including myself and Mr. Rheam.”
Teams had great success this year through building and competing with their bots and each other.
“By the time the last competition (other than states) rolled out, we had five teams competing,” Ms. Goldstein said. “I would say that was one of our best seasons so far.”
Throughout the whole season, the team has been in constant reflection of their choices and actions in the realm of their sport.
“Next year we look to make it even further than we have this year,” Bayireddi said, “and expand upon our accomplishments that we have achieved so far.”
People often desire to improve from their past experiences; nothing changes when talking about the GA robotics teams, who will set their standards even higher next year after reflecting on their current journey.