Robotics Education in K-12 Schools: Is it worth the investment?

Should K-12 students join robotics teams or take robotics classes?

Bottom line up front: Yes, robotics is an excellent extracurricular activity that emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and the development of professional skills. However, starting and sustaining programs remains the biggest barrier to entry, requiring outside grants and sponsorships and access to facilities.

Initial Thoughts

I now have over a decade of robotics mentoring and teaching experience. As a public school teacher, I fundamentally believe robotics programs help cultivate academic and professional interests for students on different learning pathways. Whether college bound or headed into technical fields out of high school, students have the opportunity cost of picking what they do outside of class. College teams apply classroom knowledge on focused projects like finding life on Mars (University Rover Challenge) or embodying a MOBA game (RoboMaster).

I joined the rover team during my first year at UW!

 

The 2023 RoboMaster competition one floor below my office.

Robotics has been branded as “a sport of the mind,” or “the hardest fun you’ve ever had.” For adult mentors working with students, it can range from grueling endurance fests with ungodly hours to the most rewarding teaching moments. Students gain momentum and rally. You can chart their conceptual growth alongside their fabrication skills. You can see their confidence as they speak to sponsors and crowds.

I don’t think robotics is very much different than other extracurricular activities. Sports, arts, music, or community service are all worthwhile, and they aren’t mutually exclusive. Robotics has a unique community of practice from enthusiast to serious to serious enthusiasts. The goals and investment will vary by locale.

Goals for Robotics Teams

Robotics is challenging to describe since it combines a lot of different activities. It’s part building, programming, marketing, and project management.

What do the actually robots do? The robots typically push, pull, shoot, balance, race, or climb. Robot sizes vary from a small 18-inch cuboid to 120-pound robots whose only practical limitation is fitting through the door. My enrichment classes I teach have games that could be made up, or follow actual real-life games and sports.

Some competitions incorporate programming for autonomous movement and computer vision. Oddly enough, I think the Lego-based competitions are usually more difficult since the robots rely more on programming instead of remote control.

For elementary and middle school students this can be their first team experience. Some students might not have any building experience. Lego can be expensive. Competitions are low stakes, but they’re still performance and skills-based.

For high school students, this is a resume builder and early network. I find that many students find similar experiences at their colleges, either in coursework or in teams.

For college students, these robotics teams can be the foot in the door to different internships or research opportunities. Or it can just be something to do with other people in and out of their major. Regardless, it’s usually both work and passion by then. 

Who Benefits the Most?

Outreach and presenting all-in-one

• Students: early practical professional training; team and travel experience
• Parents: work together on a project with their kids; they can also
• Teachers: good coaching and mentoring gig
• School Administrators: easy promotion for in kind commitments of space
• School Community: shoutout during graduation ceremonies; overall boost to school pride
• Industry Sponsors: proven recruitment tool for engineering and marketing

Besides some self-deprecating humor, I haven’t witnessed any stigma solely for being on a robotics team. Kids are respectful enough to at least respect the team aspect or opine, “They must be smart.” It might be self-selecting at first, but with outreach and reputation, you’ll get a good mix of people who support the team.

School Robotics Programs

Parents and other teachers often ask me about which programs to start with.

For K-12 robotics, FIRST and VEX have the most support. I endorse the mission of FIRST, “For inspiration and recognition of science and technology.” I wouldn’t recommend the documentary “More than Robots” on its watchability, but the sentiment and message is something I fully support. VEX can be good, too, but from my perspective at the university-level, I rarely see outcomes comparable to FIRST alumni.

A flywheel shooter from my first summer in Seattle (2019)

A made up game my TA's made called A.J.'s War(p)Zone.
(Summer 2022)

Robot Rocket League (Summer 2023)

Robot Volleyball (Summer 2023)

Programs might lead to competition, but there are mixes of team and individual components. Organizers often promote cooperation with other teams since most events follow a randomized tournament structure.

Robotics might be part of a class curriculum, usually engineering and computer aided design (CAD) or some programming courses.

I taught Arduino robotics online in the Summer of 2020.
I made a flossing robot.

Summer camps mix standalone extracurricular enrichment with some curriculum, but I think something missing is a coherent structure and sustained work with professional mentors you’d get from more year-round teams.

Lastly, the educational quality of businesses focused on robotics and coding vary. They can range from McDojos to cram schools. I prefer more community-based groups, but the availability and reach of these organizations depends on location.

Startup and Maintenance Costs

Managing robotics teams requires many resources: mentoring, supervision, equipment, software, parts, project management, and a build space.

One of my classrooms. Normally an architecture studio.

My office from March 2020 to June 2021.

Elementary and middle school teams start at a few hundred dollars. High school teams, especially with the intent to travel, will cost several thousand dollars. This can be covered by some grants within the programs, and some school districts or local foundations may offer seed money. However, the costs to individual participants can add up. Long running teams might create a 501(c)(3) to deal with fundraising and reimbursements.

Not only is it resource-intensive, but activity is also constrained by geography. Although each high school can have as many sports teams as possible, each city has constraints on sponsors and technical mentoring. Some programs have particular vendors, and since the build season is in winter, you can except some shipping delays.

The calendar is set by the program, but here is an outline:

• January to February: build season.
• March to April: competition season
• May to June: championship and demo season
• July to August: back-to-school and offseason events
• September to December: training new students and prototyping

Cultivating Interests and Personal Skills

Top students over the years, evidenced by their college and early career achievements, seem to be those who had interests beyond robotics. Other factors may contribute to this phenomenon.

Navigating overlapping student interests has consistently been the toughest work for me. Some want to be the very best; others remain content doing what they can. With a mix of process-oriented and product-oriented workflows, balancing out tasks was a challenge. I trust the design work of the student who worked with an actual rocket engineer over someone who thinks it would be cool just to try something. Those were easy calls and good opportunities for students to share their thinking. It was tougher when students didn’t want to do things like cleaning, sorting, and maintenance.

Co-op-pertition is a positive virtue.

This is like a part-time job for students most of the year, but it can become a full-time job during the main build season. I also want to emphasize that it is like a job. Frankly, it isn’t their job, and I never saw the ultimate success of the team as having the best working robot. It’s corny, but at the literal end of the day I’d always hope for a lesson learned or a happy experience. Some days, the build could be frustrating because parts aren’t in with nothing to do or work piles up and becomes endlessly tedious. Those times are punctuated by moments of elation when the robot finally does what we intend.

Discussion

In short: yes, robotics is worth it. There aren’t any inherent downsides to joining a team for fun.

I wish public schools had the resources to support engineering curriculum. In the same way that P.E. classes should teach basic skills and general fitness, K-12 engineering classes should teach basic skills and principles. Like baseball and softball being a part of athletics, robotics and programming fit in the larger category of engineering.

An influential student from my team once said, “If I wanted students to better understand chemistry, I would start a chemistry course.” She compared herself to her college peers who seemed to have a more integrated engineering foundation. It was hard to disagree with her that teachers struggled teaching students the basics, much less connect big ideas and engender habitual, disciplined practice. I trust her judgment, as she gets her PhD in robotics.

After a decade of robotics, I still think it’s a fun, worthwhile hobby or team activity. I would like to see more education and learning science research into how teams work and learn together, as well as some long term outcomes for students.  

Open Questions

1. Who should mentor robotics teams?
2. Should a college student mentor a high school robotics team?
3. Is robotics the best activity for high school students interested in engineering?

Quick Takes without Further Explanation (Future Blog Posts)

1. Someone with patience who cares about learning. It's about more than robots.
   
2. No*.
3. No.