By Theresa O’Connor
Building a robot is certainly not easy, but with a good team of hard workers, it is possible. The Tempe Prep middle school junior robotics team, known as VEX Robotics, is undeniably this kind of team for they have accomplished so much this season.
The middle school robotics team meets once a week on Saturday, from 2-5 p.m. The coach is Mr. Chris Mause and the administrative coordinator is Mrs. Emily Mause. They both work extremely hard and deserve lots of credit. This year is Mr. Mause’s first time coaching and, asked why he decided to step up, he said, “I’ve always been a tinker… When I was a kid, I used to build electronics and things like that and that passion turned into a career for me. Now I want to help today’s kids find that same excitement.”
He also added, “Unlike subjects in school, where there is a right answer, there is no right answer. We will try different designs until we find something that works for us.”
The co-captains this year are Jay Nergard, Noah Quiros, and Joey O’Connor. Seventh grader Jay is the main coder and he said, “It’s fun being the main coder, [but] it is really stressful because if the robot messes up its all my fault.” Furthermore, Jay is new to Tempe Prep this year and he believes robotics helps him become a better coder and helps others know how robots work.
The other co-captain, Joey, who is a sixth grader says, “Robotics helps build teamwork and flexibility because you are always tweaking the robot so it works properly.”
Naomi Palmer is an eighth grader and she has been on this team for three years. “My favorite thing about robotics is getting exposed to engineering and working as a team. It’s also great to see all of your team’s hard work pay off,” she said.
The Tempe Prep VEX Robotics team recently competed in the VRC Qualifier at Arizona College Prep. The team did an amazing job with a lot of effort and updates to the robot. They made it to the alliance round which was a huge achievement for everybody.
The team’s next competition is coming up on Feb. 2 at the ASU VRC Polytechnics Qualifiers. The team is continuing to make updates to their robot and they are definitely excited to test their new modifications in the upcoming match.