Greetings from the land of curricular and co-curricular robotics.

As we wind down our first quarter of our new curriculum for 9th grade (Introduction to Robotics or ItR) and our 11th/12th grade Robotics Engineering 1 (RE1) we are gearing up for our competitive robotics season with FIRST Robotics.

On the curricular side, both classes are winding down on our introduction to programming. We currently use the Vex EDR system and have strong curricula. The ItR curriculum is based on Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute and the RE1 is based on Intelitek’s Robotics Engineering Curriculum.

As far as the Jesubots (a morphing of Jesuit and Robot) are concerned, the FIRST Robotics season officially begins on January 9th, but like anything competitive there is no off season – just a between. The mentors and I continually meet to help the boys work on project management, manufacturing, programming and electrical design. The Jesubots are currently working on a robot based on last year’s FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) game. This will give the guys the basics of brainstorming, prototyping and iterations to create a final product that will be effective and fun.