Programming robots is not the easiest when they will not cooperate. This process takes time and patience. The wrong number could cause total destruction.

Engineering teacher Dr. Jacob Day has just begun one of the major units in his first period concepts of engineering class: programming robots. The students constructed these robots and added a claw. Their “mission” was to get the bot to pick up the water bottle, “the waste,” and move it to a safe zone.

“The students have to build VEX robots with the manual, and find all the parts they needed in the box they received,” Dr. Day said.

Freshman Shain Brown got his hand caught in the claw as he was programming his group’s robot. It turned on and was wheeling straight to its doom, the floor. Brown caught it in the nick of time, but not before the claw clamped down on his hand.

“Everything is going great,” Brown said. “We are so close, yet so far from perfecting the coordinates.”

Other groups worked on their bots, asking Dr. Day questions if they needed help. One robot was spinning out of control, and continuously ran into tables and legs.

“It’s a difficult process,” junior Perry Ola said. “I didn’t read the instructions, but I liked my group. They were funny, yet hardworking.”

The class has worked on the little machines for a few weeks, and some groups had to keep fixing and updating malfunctions.

“Shain is one of the best examples we have of what we do in engineering,” Dr. Day said. “He’s a good worker, and once he’s set on something, he keeps going at it.”