MCHS Robotics Team Dives into New Challenge

The Mason City High School Robotics team began meeting and is kicking off a new challenge to design a robot that can explore the depths of the ocean.
“It is a place to learn and explore my hobbies. I get to learn how to design stuff and code,” said senior Johnny Philpot. “It’s a real big learning experience and there is a lot to discover.”
This year’s game is called “Into The Deep”. As the year progresses, they will compete against other high school robotics teams.
But first, the MCHS team begins to construct their robot completely from scratch, only using a provided kit and the materials they can access (within reason). They have no base to begin with. The building of the robot, however, isn’t the only job available. Other jobs are detrimental to the success of the team. Without a programmer, the team would be unable to participate in the autonomous period of the match.
“If it’s not autonomous, it’s not a robot,” said Dr. Riesen, one of the Robotics’ team coaches and internal health specialist.
Riesen explains that within each competitive match, there are two periods, the autonomous period and the driver-controlled period. The autonomous period, which is thirty seconds long, is when the robot runs off of pre-programmed instructions on what to do. The driver-controlled period, lasting two minutes, is a little more straightforward as it is when the driver controls the robot. However, instead of just one driver, there are two. One driver controls the movement of the robot, whether it be steering it left or right. While the other driver controls the functions of the robot. For example, if it were to have a paper airplane shooter, the second driver would be in control of it.
The team also provides access to the world of STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) which can open up endless opportunities.
“It helps branch out into other STEM activities which is something I feel is important,” said sophomore Noma Hines. STEM helps achieve higher critical thinking, boosts curiosity, and builds cognitive development.
Members say The Mason City High School Robotics team is just as described: a team. Wednesday afternoons from 2:20-4:00 pm Robotics is held in Mr. Hines’s room (2414).