During the winter season at Germantown Academy, students gather after school each day to build robots in hopes of succeeding at the competitive stage. Every year, the leading organization, VEX Robotics, creates a game to test students’ abilities to adapt to new challenges through building and coding – this year’s challenge is called “Over Under.”
“It’s kind of like soccer, and there are these game objects called tri-balls,” Tyler Tang ‘26 from Team 8637A said. “The field is divided into two sides with the barrier in between; the goal is to get as many tri-balls into the other side’s goal.”
Each yearly challenge is an opportunity to grow for the team and progress in their robotics knowledge. Ms. Diane Goldstein and Mr. Michael Rheam are the faculty sponsors, but according to Ms. Goldstein, the GA VEX Robotics Team is truly a student-run organization and has been since its creation in 2014. There are four separate teams of varying grade levels named 8637A, 8637B, 8637C and 8637D. Especially since there are five to six members on each team, collaboration is key to the success of the organization.
“Our previous model was not created with the intention of future expansion. So, our team collectively decided to rebuild a section of the robot,” Luke Hu ‘25 said. “Even though we see the previous model as a mistake, it gave us the knowledge to create and improve our robot.”
Failure is the mother of success for the Robotics team. Each problem they face is an opportunity for them to grow and enhance their robot.
Indeed, when the team members put their time and effort into robotics, they can cooperate and improve at a pace faster than any team sport.
The team 8637A eagerly meets every lunch and flex to work on their robot. Their commitment to robotics is a testament to the entire team’s love of the extracurricular.
“We can work on robotics even during the school day, so we can spend more time on it than we could on a sport,” Alex Wang ‘26 said. “It’s more flexible.”
“We really want to make it to states,” Arjun Sood ‘25 said. “It’s an important goal because we can see the work we’ve put into the robot and see how we improved from last year.”
The Robotics team has been successful in prior years, and they are looking forward to trying to succeed this year as well as the years ahead.
“We are older, have more experience, and know what to do,” Nathan George ‘26 said. “Especially since we were freshmen last year, our plans and goals have improved a lot.”
As each year progresses, the robotics team improves more and more. Similar to sports teams, individual players mature and up their game with each additional season.
“I see robotics as a fulfilling experience due to the time spent with friends, problem-solving, and innovating,” Max Kopp ‘26 said. “All while seeing the team’s ideas come to life.”
When you walk into the GA Maker Space, it doesn’t look like intense engineers and coders furiously at work—it looks like friends coming together to work on a passion project. Of course, they are still hard at work, but the relaxed atmosphere improves the experience of robotics as a whole.
“I truly love watching the students work together to design, build, and compete,” faculty advisor Ms. Goldstein said. “I am impressed at their perseverance – prototyping and making many, many iterations before achieving success.”
Robotics is undoubtedly an activity freight with challenges. However, at the end of the day, the hard work pays off in the form of a competitive robot.
Overall, Germantown Academy’s robotics program is collaborative in action and striving for greatness this 2023-2024 season. Their success on the field exemplifies their commitment and ability to come together to create something significant.