YPG employee leads local team to Robotics World Championship
Members of The Yuma Homeschool Robotics Program have qualified to participate in the VEX Robotics World Championship in May.
This is a huge achievement for the team that was started off by two dads in the summer of 2018. I, Yuma Proving Ground’s Test Support Branch Chief and Jay Bathrick attended a Homeschool Conference in Phoenix. This conference had a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math focus lunch hour where different homeschool parents talked about Robotic programs they have done. After the conference had concluded, Jay and I got together and decided to do some research to see if it was possible to create a robotics program. After a week of number crunching, it was determined that we needed eight kids onboard, each paying $150 to start the program.
We promoted the program by posting to two homeschool Facebook pages. The results were beyond our expectations. In a matter of days, we had 24 students wanting to sign up for our program. We ultimately selected 20 students and grouped them up four kids per robot. We selected the VEX IQ platform for our building material. These are standardized parts that allow for a fair competition hosted by Robotics Education and Competition (REC). Five VEX IQ robot kits were secured and we were able to find a used competition field to allow the kids to practice competitions before heading to Phoenix. The program had taken off.
The following season of 20192020, we increased our students to 30 kids and had 10 robots kits. This gave a student to robot ratio of three to one. We found that this ratio was excellent in keeping the kids engaged during our weekly two-hour class. Last year’s 2020-2021 season saw COVID-19 disrupt the classroom environment for most schools but that didn’t slow our group down. We continued to meet outside thanks to the beautiful Yuma weather and grew to 33 students and 11 robots. We have since stabilized and finished our 2021-2022 season with 31 students and 10 robots.
As the program grew so did our equipment. We started with five robot kits, one competition field, and some spare parts. We wrapped up our fourth year of the program with a total of 12 robot kits, five competition fields, and over 150,000 extra spare parts. We also expanded our programming side with laptops allowing students to program their robots.
Competition has always been at the heart of the program as we feel teamwork is one of the most important attributes gained from our class. Over the years, we have attended at least two Phoenix competitions yearly and have hosted local competitions to showcase our students’ progress to friends and family. Everyone’s hard work has paid off as our teams have earned various awards over the years.
In the 2021-2022 season, four of our teams have qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship currently being held in Dallas from May 8 –12.
Our program has helped spur other private schools in starting their own robotics program and we assist as needed to those groups. Our ultimate dream was to host our own VEX IQ Robotics Competition right here in the city of Yuma, this dream will now come to fruition in November of 2022.
We believe that our program has been successful over the years because of the parents. Jay and I as mentors are responsible for the teaching material, planning, and development of the program. The student’s parents manage teamwork challenges with the students, help with running our practice competitions, and assist the mentors when needed.
In addition to working as a Yuma Homeschool Robotics Program Mentor, I am part of the robotics team for the Army’s Gains in Education Program at Yuma Proving Ground.