Robotics club at Woodlands Academy encourages careers in STEM – Chicago Tribune

Three Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart students sit in the corner of a classroom discussing a metal device about the size of a milk crate.

The girls, members of the school's Robotics Club, are taking part in the Illinois State Championship at Elgin Community College on Feb. 25. Today, they are figuring how to make their robot shoot a ball through a hoop or up a ramp.

Nearby, two more club members are planning a workshop for visiting students from St. Malachy School in Chicago that will instruct the students on how to design and program a robot.

The Robotics Club at Woodlands Academy in Lake Forest has been growing. Just two years ago it only had five or six consistent members. This year it us up to 21 members, said club moderator and physics teacher John Denman.

"I think they have a lot more STEM-focused classes here," said Genevieve Makowski. "And I bugged some of my friends to join."

Club member Elizabeth Bartusiak said the nature of the group has changed, making it more appealing to new members.

"It's more about bringing in members who have no experience about robotics," she said.

Designing, programming and constructing robots is largely a process of learning from your past mistakes.

"My whole four years has been trial and error," Bartusiak said. "One failed idea takes us to our next successful idea."

For the state competition, students are tasked with creating a robot that will lift a ball 30 inches above the floor.

"We had some other designs," Makowski said. "A tube that would launch balls to go through hoops. That was a design that wouldn't work. We tried to do a rack and pinion. It wouldn't slide."

With the increasing size of the club, students have broken into five committees. Members are focused on building, programming, community outreach, engineering and budgeting.

"The most specialized thing is programming," Makowski said. "You need to understand the coding. Building would be the second most complicated. It's pushing things together and trying to make it work."

Makowski said she joined the club two years ago both because it seemed fun and several of her friends were joining. Bartusiak, a four-year member, was considering a career in the science and technology field and wanted to explore robotics.

Mariana Noble joined the club this year for a different reason.

"Robotics to me has always been a kind of male-dominated field," said Noble, 14. "I've always been interested in bringing women into science and STEM."

"It's still male dominated but it's been getting diversified," Denman said. "One of our Woodlands alums works at a downstate power plan as a nuclear physicist. A lot of Woodlands girls go into medical fields or other science or engineering fields."

Denman takes a hands-off approach as club adviser. At the beginning of a meeting earlier this month, he made a few announcements then left the club members to it.

The club usually meets twice a week during lunch, although it's been meeting more often to prepare for the state competition.

The school budgets money for the club and Motorola Solutions also has awarded a grant to the group. The fathers of two club members work there, Denman said, and the company has supplied an electrical engineer as a mentor.

For more information about the Robotics Club at Woodlands Academy, check out their Instagram account.

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Robotics club at Woodlands Academy encourages careers in STEM - Chicago Tribune