Robotics Club

A robotics club is a gathering of students who are interested in learning about and working with robots. ... At robotics competitions, teams of students must design and build a robot that can compete against opponents in a series of specific challenges.

The St. Thomas More Robotics Club is a two-fold program. The first uses LEGO Robotics where students design, build, and program robots that can take on a variety of challenges including: a drag race, a tractor pull, negotiating obstacle courses, a race to a light source, etc. The intent of this program is to learn some basic engineering, basic computer programming, problem solving, and scientific concepts around movement (friction, torque, force, gearing concepts, etc). Students will take turns working on project teams for a specific aspect of a robot design: drive train, programming, challenge course, etc. Students will also have additional opportunities to design and test circuits for various functions. We do have circuitry construction sets for various skill levels and these are available to challenge students. Club members will take turns in teams throughout the season to further develop their skills of teamwork.

Our second Robotics program is for students who have done LEGO Robotics before (or proven experience with LEGO robotics). This program is called First Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics. The programming concepts are more advanced than the LEGO Robotics. The materials look more like those of an erector set. This is a program designed for high school competition events.