that feeling, I asked the students what they
thought about the robotics kit. “So what are we
supposed to do with this stuff?” Isaac asked.
“I’m not sure,” I responded, “but we can look it
up and find out. How about building a robot,
and we can go from there?”
On the following Friday, Isaac came in to my
room and asked to take the robot stuff home
for the weekend. I stressed the importance of
not losing anything, and allowed him to take it
home. The next thing I knew, Isaac was backing
his car up to the room’s door, and Albert was
there loading parts into the back of his car.
With anticipation, I watched them drive away
with the robot, hoping that something great
would come from it.
As I walked up to my room Monday morning,
there stood Isaac and Albert. “You’ve got to see
this!” exclaimed Isaac.
I opened my door, and Albert came in and
immediately went to the computers to log on to
YouTube. As he logged on, Isaac came running
in, hauling boxes of parts.
After all of the parts were in, Isaac and Albert
brought in their robot, and turned it on. To
my amazement, Albert grabbed the remote,
and Isaac turned the robot on. Albert drove
the robot around the room and used the arm
they had built to pick up a beaker and move it
around the room. I was totally amazed! These
two had exceeded my expectations, and had
created a robot from nothing.
I congratulated them and focused them back to
the task by asking, “So what are we supposed
to do with this robot to win this game?” Albert
immediately ran over and started a YouTube
video he had found that described the game,
which was Gateway that year.
In Gateway, the students’ robot needed to be
able to pick up a ball or a cylinder and put it
into plastic tubes that were about 24 inches
34
tall. After defining the game, Albert brought
up a few other videos of robots competing.
After watching the videos, and watching them
demonstrate their robot, I was convinced that
they had created a robot to compete with, and
we registered to compete the next month in
Yakima.
When we arrived at the competition, Isaac,
Albert, and I checked in and went to find our
area in the “pits.” The first thing I noticed was
the number of students in the room wrenching
on robots. There was a mix of middle school
and high school students, and there were
representatives from most of the schools in the
valley, as well as some from the Seattle area.
After we set up our pit area and put some
finishing touches on the robot, we were up.
The feeling of that moment was electric. I
was torn by the anxiety of never competing
before, by the unknown, and by the thrill of
the game. Isaac and Albert placed their robot
in the arena, powered it up, and waited for the
sounding bell.
As the round started, Albert drove the robot
out, picked up a ball, and scored. It was an
awesome feeling to see that ball drop in that
cylinder! They spun around, raced to get
another object, this time a cylinder. As the
robot came around to line up to score, Albert
jerked up the arm, and the robot tipped over.
My heart plummeted. I raced over and asked
the ref, “Can we pick it up?”
“No. You can’t touch the robot until the match
is over.”
It was a sobering turn of events. We went from
cheering that first score to watching our robot
sit on its back for the next minute and a half.
I was frustrated and disappointed, not in my
students, but by the fact that we had to sit
helpless. Fortunately, Isaac and Albert took it in
stride.
2015 Washington State Teacher of the Year • From Seed to Apple