Four years ago, there were no robotics teams at Brentwood Academy. This Saturday, March 4, the school will be hosting the VEX Robotics Tennessee State Championship, where six BA teams, collectively known as the Iron Eagles, will compete against 38 teams from 21 different Tennessee schools.

The electric pace of robotics surging popularity at BA is a testament both to the intellectual precocity of the schools students and to the acumen of dedicated teachers who first saw in robotics a unique learning opportunity.

Because competitive robotics is not just about competition. Its not just about gears and fuses and batteries and wires. Its about constructing a sense of community and instilling a passion for curiosity and practice. Its about different parts learning to work together for a common purpose.

Wendy Stallings was not a competitive robotics expert when she first thought up the idea. The physics teacher simply thought that building robots could be a stimulating, rewarding experience for her students.

I had a group of students who were very into computer programming and mechanical engineering, Stallings said. I asked if they wanted to build a robot, and they said yes and the next thing we knew we had unintentionally won state and started an official robotics team.

It really did happen almost that quickly. BAs first robotics team consisted of five people and was formed in the fall of 2013. The following spring that team was in the world championships in Anaheim, California. The next year, 40 students signed up to be on robotics teams.

We opened it up to the whole school just to see, and it really exploded, Stallings remembered.

In its second year, the program was even more successful than in its first. At the world finals, one BA team won the design award, the second highest award that VEX, the company that organizes robotic competitions, gives out. Another placed 4th out of 450 teams in the tournament phase of the contest.

Stallings currently considers herself the head coach emeritus of BAs teams. She has passed along most of the day-to-day coaching duties to her former assistant coach, Chris Allen, BAs Computer Technology Director.

They are both consistently impressed by the dedication of BAs Iron Eagles, noting how some students will spend up to 40 hours a week in the summer coming to school to work on their robots. Allen estimates that many robotics team members work 600 to 800 hours a year on their machines, including weekends and holidays oftentimes.

Its not that they are required to do so. In fact, Stallings mentioned how sometimes she had to intercede to get students to work less on robotics, but they just love it so much they dont seem to want to stop.

Allen is currently overseeing six teamsteams A through F that will participate in Saturdays state championships. Each team has between three and five students who build a robot each year to compete in whatever contest VEX has designed. This year the game is Starstruck and involves teams trying to get their robots to place Stars and Cubes on their opponents side of a separating barrier.

Brady Cole is a junior on BAs Team E. Hes been doing robotics for two years now, although for one year prior to that he acted as the schools tournament DJ, traveling and playing music while other students competed. Its a lot of 8-bit music and movie soundtracks, is how he describes his ideal robotics playlist.

After all the DJing, Cole sensed that he had more contribute to the robotics program.

I found that I had a knack for the designing process, he said.

That knack has resulted in Cole designing a wildly unorthodox robot for the state championships. Audrey II, named after the man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors, is a behemoth of a robot that separates into two parts connected by a tether, and which can extend from 18 to 52 long. Coach Allen said hes never seen anything like it in competition before.

Freshman Katie Ann Edgeworth and senior Will McClellan are on Team C. Edgeworth is a math and science fan who, as a prospective enrollee on a tour of Brentwood Academy, saw a robotics trophy on the wall and immediately wanted to know more.

McClellan is a three-year veteran of the team who got into robotics on a lark. It was kind of just an opportunity I saw, and I just decided to jump on it, he said.

As educators, Stallings and Allen have in mind certain things that they hope these three students, and all of their robotics compatriots, will get out of the program.

For Stallings, the science teacher, that hope revolves around the demystification of science from some sort of abstract, imposing subject to a practice that can be accessible and even thrilling.

I think one of the greatest benefits of a robotics program is providing students insight into how engineering and science really works, with the whole plan, test, rebuild, process, she said. We have a lot of students who might not normally be interested in something like science or engineering because they feel like they dont get good enough grades or they feel like theyre not smart enough, but when they get involved in the process of building and they learn how creative science and engineering fields are, they learn how fun science and engineering can be, and then they learn that anybody can do it. Its about hard work and not text book grades.

Allen sees other potential benefits as well. For example, robotics, he believes, will not only make students smarter, but also help them cultivate practical skills they can use in their day-to-day lives.

Id say the other in terms of skills would be communication skills, time management skills and then social skills, too, he said. Theyre having to work on a team thats maybe not structured like a football team per se, where its a more intimate setting.

For their part, Cole, Edgeworth and McClellan trace their enthusiasm for robotics to a number of factors.

Edgeworth, for instance, especially enjoys the satisfaction that comes with knowing that her hard work is going towards a definable goal and will likely pay off one day.

The more time you put into it, the more you get out of it, she said.

McClellan appreciates that aspect of robotics as well, but also expressed his appreciation for the way tournaments have expanded his understanding of the differences and similarities between different cultures.

It kind of shows how robotics crosses national boundaries, he said. You get to worlds and you see people from all across the world and youd assume itd be so different, but everyone there is committed to a common goal.

Then theres the community part of it as well. Robotics made McClellan feel like he really belonged.

I came onto the team as a sophomore with really low self-esteem and didnt think I could do anything, he said. And before I knew it, I had been to two world competitions and won state tournaments and everything, and it really boosted my self-esteem to have that and to have that group of friends that I could rely on who are not only funny and nice to talk to but who are smart too.

That social side of robotics really stands out for Cole, too.

I enjoy the community, he said. Its a very nice group of people. Whenever things go wrong were always all there more as a school. It sounds really cheesy but we always say, Were all Iron Eagles, andbefore your individual team comes your school. When we need to, we all come together, and its a really nice, close-knit community.

The VEX Robotics Tennessee State Championship will be held all day Saturday, March 4 at Brentwood Academy.

Read more:

Robotics are big at Brentwood Academy, where the state championship will be held on Saturday - Nolensville Home Page