Five seniors lead Ellsworth's first-ever robotics team

Nov. 30—ELLSWORTH — Some might think smaller schools have fewer opportunities to offer students, but at Ellsworth, Principal Amy Labat is seeing excitement in the air — or perhaps through the hallways — as both students and teachers work toward expanding opportunities.

The school, which boasts 128 students in grades K-12, recently transformed one of its classrooms to a daycare facility, Lil' Panthers, and followed that up with the launch of an after-school program, Panther Overtime, just before Thanksgiving. In addition, a new community education director has plans for several upcoming cooking and crafting classes, a group of students organized a school book club, and a couple of teachers are looking at adding new clubs — one for esports and the other similar to FCCLA.

Labat said the efforts provide students with expanded learning opportunities.

Case in point is the new robotics club that came together over the summer.

Led by five senior members, Josh Jansma, Logan Bossert, Landon Leuthold, Zach Onken and Angelo Trotter, the team has 13 members. They are coached by Rebecca Dreessen and Christine Lovett, who are so new to robotics that they're learning right along with the team.

Last spring, Dreessen approached some of the then-juniors about interest in forming a robotics team. She took several of them to a competition in Marshall, and then planned a meeting back at the school shortly thereafter.

"We had a decent turnout at the meeting," Jansma said.

A $3,000 grant from Nobles Cooperative Electric was awarded to the team, and the Ellsworth Community Club chipped in $500 for tool boxes to hold all of the robot's parts, as well as fund other needs.

"Once they compete in a competition, there's a grant that covers all of our costs," shared Labat. "We have to put some skin in the game before they put in (funding)."

Leuthold said the team received a kit of parts and coding software, and they had to start building their robot from scratch.

"We weren't completely directionless," added Jansma. "We had books. I look at it as inspiration on design."

The $3,000 grant was used to purchase a computer numerical control machine and 3-D printer. Once the team writes code, they transfer it to the CNC, and that tells the 3-D printer what to produce. They use the printer to make parts for their robot, such as a claw and axle.

In this first year, the five seniors are taking the lead on building the robot and programming it for competition. The remaining team members consist of seventh graders, with a couple freshmen and a junior.

"After the competition is done, we will teach the next group," Leuthold said.

The nice thing about the robotics program is that the kit is reused from year to year, and all of the parts created by this year's team stay with the school for future teams to use and expand upon.

The actual robotics competition requires teams to program their robot to perform a 30-second routine on its own, and then a 2-minute contest in which team members are able to use the controller and direct the robot toward its tasks.

"The robot doesn't need to be all that complicated this year," Jansma said. "We just need it to move, pick up things and shoot a paper airplane."

The seniors meet every Monday for two hours to work as a team on the robot, but on most days, one or more of the students can be found tinkering on the robot in an upstairs classroom newly dedicated for the robotics program. They find time between PSEO classes, during study hall and work study, and after school to fine tune the programming and the robot.

Leuthold said a lot of what they do is trial and error.

Jansma agreed, noting how he rebuilt the robot's wheel assembly three or four times before he could figure out a problem they were having with it.

When needed, they reach out to coaches at other schools. Such was the case earlier this month, when the robotics coach from Luverne stopped in to field the team's myriad of questions. With a tight deadline, the team is doing all it can to prepare. They are able to begin testing their robot this Friday — less than two months after getting their robot kit. The next step is competition, slated for mid-January.

In the two months they've had to work on their robot, Leuthold said he's learned problem-solving skills.

"Figuring out what's wrong and how to fix it has been a big thing," he said. "We were given a basic starter kit. Not everything fits perfectly — you have to change this or change that."

Leuthold, who worked last summer at the local implement dealership in Ellsworth, admits to being mechanically inclined. In fact, the other team members said that if Leuthold wasn't in the room, there wasn't a lot of work put into the robot.

Bossert is most experienced in 3-D printing, so that is where he's concentrated his efforts. As practice leading up to making robot parts with the printer, he and teammates made 3-D printed figurines for classrooms in the school. The figurines included a black panther, palm tree, pineapple and a moose.

"These are the most intricate parts I've ever printed," Bossert said of the robot parts he is making. "I'm trying to make a claw with the 3-D printer."

Jansma's interest is mainly in coding, so he's spearheading that for his contribution to the team. He also works with Bossert and Leuthold and the other seniors, and intends to do the same with the younger members after their competition has ended.

"Hopefully there's enough interest in the younger kids to keep the robotics program running year after year," Jansma said. "We don't want it to be just this year."

"I think we're all glad we got a chance to do it," added Leuthold. "It really is going to be a good thing for the school to continue."