'Building stuff is fun:' Robotics provides creative learning experience for West Holmes students

MILLERSBURG — Students see it as a creative way of learning new things. The eighth grade science and automation and robotics teacher sees it as an incredible opportunity for the students.

"It" is the new robotics program offered in the West Holmes District that began for eighth-graders last year, and has expanded to include high school freshmen this year.

"The opportunities the kids have through this program are limitless," Brooke Fox, the robotics teacher, said.

When the program began last year in the middle school, West Holmes students were competing against schools that have had the classes 10-plus years.

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"Because there weren't a whole lot of middles-school-only competitions, I was taking our eighth-graders and we were competing against seniors," Fox said. "But they never got discouraged, or thought they couldn't do it. They always came back with more ideas. It's something special to watch them be passionate about something during the school day. It's really amazing."

The students develop and put their ideas into action, building Vex Robots, which are used to compete in the tournaments.

Middle School Principal Jeff Woods said the project was Fox's idea from the start and he helped with the logistics of the class and how to fit it into the curriculum schedule.

"Mrs. Fox and Mrs. (Julie) Snyder have done a great job with this class, and promoting the entire project," Woods said. "It has been amazing to watch the student numbers grow with the support of our community to help this dream become a reality. With each tournament throughout the last two years our teams have improved, and I look forward to watching the progress of this group down the road."

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A growing program, getting kids up and out from behind a desk

The middle school has offered a Lego robotics class as an elective for sixth graders, and Fox proposed taking it a step further and developing the program for older students who are interested in robotics.

"It is a lot of work, scheduling tournaments," Fox said. "Going to the tournaments is an all-day thing on Saturdays. The STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) part has always been my passion as a teacher, and we didn't have a lot of that before this. Now that we've started with Project Lead the Way at the middle school, the opportunity for these kids to not sit at a desk and take notes all day is amazing."

Where the program goes from here, Fox can't say for sure. She just knows the students are thriving, and she looks forward to seeing the project prosper.

West Holmes Superintendent Eric Jurkovic thinks the robotics class has a big future in the district.

"It's an awesome class. Kids really enjoy taking it," Jurkovic said. "It's hands-on and they've enjoyed success going to competitions against other districts around the state. Our hope is to integrate robotics, along with Project Lead the Way into the high school.

"Brooke is really enthused and excited to teach it, which is half the battle," the superintendent continued. "When kids see that excitement, that's how programs grow and move forward. She has put a lot of time and effort into her classes. It's good for the district, and she's the one who has made this happen."

Students enjoy hands-on learning and creativity

Fox said when she started the program she took a robot home and worked on it over the summer.

'It took me all summer to pick some of this stuff up, but the kids knew it immediately," she said. "They were making stuff and designing things the first day. It's mind-blowing what they can do. They're pretty special."

The kids do all of the preparation on their own. Fox is not allowed to help them, especially at the competitions.

"They develop their own ideas and try to put them into action," Fox added, noting the students keep a journal of their progress, including drawings of their robots.

Eighth-graders Blake Harford and Boden Macaulay work as a team. They both said they hope to do some sort of work like this when they get older.

"Building stuff is fun, especially the creative aspect of it," Harford said. "I always enjoyed playing with Legos, and I built a lot of stuff when I was little."

Eighth grade students Malachi Craft, Emmy Miller, Breslyn Brown and Talyn Goudy said they enjoy the class, and like the opportunity to work together and developing their communication skills.

"It's a fun way to be creative," Brown said.

"It's fun learning new things and learning how to work together," Miller added.

Fox said the students are used to talking about what they are doing because that is part of the judging process at the competitions.

"At Akron Firestone, engineering students from (the University of Akron) came in and interviewed the kids about their projects. I thought that was a great experience for them," she said.

State qualifiers head to tournament in March

The team of Chris Williams, Ford Jones and Mallory Marmet teamed to win the excellence award at Firestone, earning a berth in the middle school state competition, which takes place March 1 in Akron at the John S. Knight Center. The high school tournament is March 2.

"We still have three tournaments left for students to qualify and are hoping to have more teams," Fox said.

The excellence award is all-encompassing, including interviews and notebooks, as well as how they did in the competition. All three students agreed it was pretty exciting to be recognized for doing something they really enjoyed doing.

"We've been working together as a team and building off of each other," Williams said. "It was awesome getting that award."

Freshman Lily Galehouse said building things and driving the robot (remotely) is what attracted her to the robotics program.

"It's also fun competing in the tournaments," she said. Her teammates are Robert Yabroff and Jevin Zheng.

Get in on basket fundraiser; proceeds help support the program

The Robotics program is holding a gift basket fundraiser to help offset the expenses, which include attending tournaments, keeping up-to-date on the Vex Robotic equipment and growing the program. One tournament for which West Holmes took eight teams cost upward of $800.

The students are selling raffle tickets at $5 a piece or five for $20. The first prize basket contains about $700 in gift cards. The second-prize basket has about $500 in gift cards. The third- fourth and fifth-prized baskets have about $300, $200 and $100, respectively, in gift cards. The drawing is Feb 13.

Fox said a note about the fundraiser was placed on the West Holmes Facebook page, and many people commented they were unaware the district even had a robotics program.

The students are selling raffle tickets with the goal of being able to purchase more equipment and to be able to eventually host tournaments at West Holmes, as well as update equipment. Fox and her husband built the arena the students use to practice with their robots.

"Vex changes the game every year, so new game pieces are required," Fox said. "They put out special parts for the robots for specific games, and you have to buy those parts. We have to buy stuff from them every year to keep up with the games."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: From Legos to robots, West Holmes students technically get creative