Fulton High School to offer robotics class | Local News … – Clinton Herald

FULTON, Ill. Next year Fulton High School students will have the opportunity to take a year-long class in robotics.

The River Bend School Board approved a request to add the FIRST Tech Challenge course beginning with the 2017-2018 school year. The board voted 6-1, with Nick Crosthwaite voting no, to add the course.

Crosthwaite said he was voting no due to the timing of adding the course and the fact that registration had already taken place.

"Let's know what we're going to offer on a timely basis," he said.

Joe Holmbo said he voted yes for the proposal because adding courses like these are what makes Fulton High School stand out from other area schools, and provides unique opportunities for students.

According to a course description, the yearlong course acts as an introduction to robotics in a competitive format. In addition to in-school work, the students will be required to work out of school and attend at least four competitions throughout the year.

"Teams of up to 10 students are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams," information from the district reads.

The coursework also includes working with mentors in different industries, including engineering, marketing and business and programming.

The course will be graded on 10 percent daily course work, 40 percent on a student's engineering notebook and 50 percent on tests and major projects.

A course outline also states how each quarter of the school year will be used for the class, with the first quarter building on the basic principles of engineering and robotics alongside early planning for the first competition in November.

In the second quarter, students will design and build their robot for competition, in the third quarter they will focus on competition preparation, and in the fourth quarter they will focus on more principles of engineering and robotics.

The number of students that will take the course next year was not available, but Fulton High School Principal Chris Tennyson said he would have a number for the board when the master schedule is made in the next month or so.

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Fulton High School to offer robotics class | Local News ... - Clinton Herald