HANCEVILLE, Ala. – The Hanceville High School Robotics Team competed in Cullman County High School Robotics Competition late last month, receiving the Excellence Award. The team was also named the overall champion in the Teamwork category.
Teacher Shaunna Aker went into education after receiving her degree in Comprehensive Science, Biology, and EDS Teacher Leadership in 2002.
“When I was asked to teach robotics, I didn’t know anything about it, but the kids just took off with it,” she said. “They just know how to do it, and it came so easily for them.”
She said that when it comes to balancing the technical aspects of robotics with the educational goals of the team, her primary focus is helping the students working together.
“It’s important to help them work together toward a common goal. Each year we get different fields and obstacle courses and it’s up to them to create a robot that works,” Aker explained. “They have to design it on their own and I step back and let them do it. Though they have to be able to work together to come up with that design and to make it efficient as a team. It’s up to them to make those decisions and I’m just here to aid in helping.”
She said the county competition is usually in February, but this year it was in November. “We had roughly two months to build a robot, practice and prepare for the tournament,” she said. “Normally we have about five months. So that shows you how well they were able to pull this off.”
When the team was asked about the most challenging aspects of being in robotics and how they overcome those challenges, Bradley Hill was the first to say, “Building a robot.”
Karrigan Pipkin stated, “Being able to work with other teams. You have to communicate with them and compare what your abilities are to theirs in order to work with them.”
Aker said she’s proud of the team’s consistency and that they help each other through their strengths and weaknesses. “We have some that are better with coding, some that prefer to drive the robots, and they work together really well.”
She added, “The Excellence Award they won takes into account how well you do in your interview, in the tournament itself, notebooking skills and overall robotics skills…and this team won all of those. To me, that’s better than any other award.”
When the students were asked what made them want to pursue robotics, Izaiha Acuff answered, “I like working with electronics and building things in general.”
“I joined in middle school and figured why not continue into high school,” Yoleth Trejo added.
Steven Briscoe noted, “I love working with computers and this is something within what I knew, so knowing it coincided with my interests – I decided to go for it.”
Several of the students said they would want to pursue aspects of robotics in their careers.
“I would love to have people in the community like HVAC workers or computer techs that use these skills so the students can see what they’re doing here applies in the real world,” Aker stated.
If you would like to be a guest speaker or assist in fundraisers for Hanceville Robotics, reach out to saker@ccboe.org or hvh.ccboe.org.
