INDIANAPOLIS— The robotics programs at IPS are growing and this weekend 21 teams from middle and high schools will compete in an invitational VEX robotics tournament at Arsenal Tech High School.
This weekend’s competition is called High Stakes and will test teams' skills in design, engineering, and teamwork.
A few days before the competition, the teams at Arsenal Tech were getting ready. The program was started three years ago and adds more students each year.
“We’ve kind of exploded. We had one team our first year, last year we had four and now we’ve got five,” Isaac Adams, an engineering teacher at Arsenal Tech said.
Tenth grader Graham Barnes is in his first year.
“It was a bit overwhelming. I saw all the parts on the wall and in cabinets and I didn’t know what anything did, but I saw team members who were willing to help and I saw a teacher who was willing to teach me everything,” said Barnes.
Benny Vazquez joined because he wants to go into electrical engineering.
“Felt like robotics would be a very fun experience,” said Vazquez.
“Its been great. Not only have I seen students who are not in engineering participate and develop a passion through that, we’ve also seen some kids who are in the engineering pathway who have another outlet for their design skills,” said Adams.
Adams has also seen growth in what his students are capable of.
“We went to our first tournament and it was bananas. We just got destroyed, there were so many things we didn’t know but I came away from our second tournament realizing we have everything in this district to do a tournament and host one even better.”
Arsenal Tech will host their second tournament on Saturday and show off what they’ve been working on for a better part of a year.
“My main thought is one of our teams will have a great shot at winning,” said Barnes
“I’m excited to see my work and how it stacks up against other people,” said Vazquez. “I really just come with the idea that things are not going to go as planned that’s part of the engineering process.”
