Ross Beatty robotics team hosts recruitment night
Published 10:16 am Thursday, November 2, 2017
Frank Squires Elementary School in Cassopolis was lit up after hours Monday evening with students hoping to learn more about what makes a machine tick.
The Ross Beatty High School Robotics team hosted a “job fair” at 6 p.m. Monday. For the event, the team invited students interested in becoming members to Frank Squires to learn more about the team and what they do. Dozens of students and parents attended the event and listened to the team’s various presentations.
“The goal of tonight is to get students who have not joined [the robotics team] in the past or freshman just coming to the school to recruit new students to be on the team,” said team mentor Jim Ward. “There really is a lot for these kids to do.”
Even students that are not interested specifically in building robotics can have fun with the robotics team, Ward said. The robotics team has several sub teams, like fundraising and marketing teams that help the team securing funding from donors, as the team is not funded by the school district.
“Contrary to what people may think, robotics is not just building robots, even though that’s a big part of it,” said team captain Amelia Ayers, a senior at Ross Beatty High School. “We have an accounting team, a safety team, a marketing team. We want to make sure students know all about those teams.”
The job fair is important for recruitment as the team moves closer to the robotics season beginning in January, Ayers said.
Last year, the team competed in the world championship in St. Louis, Missouri, and would like to do even better this year, both Ward and Ayers said.
“I’m really hoping we can get there again this year,” she said. “We want to live up to last year.”
Ayers believes that the robotics team is important to the Cassopolis school system, because it gets students involved in math and science, which can better prepare them for the job market.
“I think it’s really important to get kids interested and involved in the STEM fields, which is science, engineering, technology and math,” Ayers said. “It gets kids involved with working with their hands. When you do robotics, you do things for yourself, you see the changes and work with something, which is not something you always get in a classroom. It’s a really great resource.”
Any student that is interested in the team should join, because it is fun and informative, she said.
Several students attended the job fair, which both Ayers and Ward hope will translate into many new members, and hopefully a successful robotics season.
“I’ve got a good feeling,” Ayers said.
