St. Joseph robotics club helping students harness valuable skills and careers in STEM
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- A local robotics program is giving kids the chance to explore their creativity and develop valuable skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The St. Joe Circuit Breakers are bringing robotics and engineering to the forefront with hands-on experience designing, building and programming advanced technology.
The club is made up of kids who are both homeschooled and those attending public schools in the St. Joseph area. Younger students up to 6th grade can participate in Lego-based challenges while older participants in grades 7 through 12 participate in FIRST Robotics Competitions.
"With competitions, they're a bit stressful because we have to make sure our robot is working properly," club member Kendrick Conard said. "During competitions, if something breaks we usually have a back part ready and if we don't, we find a way to get around it."
Students are often tasked with building highly-sophisticated robots capable of autonomously carrying out tasks like launching a ball, picking up an object or moving an item to another location.
The tasks require students to develop unique and valuable roles as they strengthen teamwork and learn how to problem solve in real-time, particularly if something on the robot must be changed or altered. The St. Joe Circuit Breakers first got their start in 2017, back when few if any robotics clubs existed in the city.
Jeff Cox, a local parent and systems architect, opted to start the club after noticing a growing interest in robotics from his son and other kids in the area.
Over time, Cox discovered how rewarding it was to help younger generations find their passion in robotics and engineering-based activities, highly-coveted skills that can help them in their long-term futures.
"The club started out as an activity. I was doing it for my kids. I've discovered it's a lot of fun to watch the moments when kids maybe have an interest, but they don't really understand it," Cox said. "One of the things FIRST Robotics works hard at is helping kids take basic engineering principles, design principles, electrical principles and understand them. Not just in an academic sense, but how it plays out in a real world scenario. These kids are going to go on to college someday with a step up on their peers because they will have not only learned about this in the classroom, but in real life."
The club has grown considerably since its founding, with the program now seeing its second iteration of kids coming through successfully.
One of the current members of the club is Jeff's daughter Naomi, a junior in high school. She credits her interest in robotics to watching her dad and brother compete in competitions in her youth.
"I was actually too young to participate when the club initially started. For one year I would just watch everything they (brother and dad) did," Naomi said. "There were even showcases where they would present on stage and I would stay behind to work the robot and tell people about it. Now being able to be in competitions with my dad is really cool because we'll go home after practices and talk about the problems and what we can do to make the club better."
With several club members set to graduate high school next year, many have great appreciation for the opportunities the St. Joe Circuit Breakers have provided as they prepare to embark on their college careers.
"A lot of the tasks involve identifying what the problem is, because nine times out of ten, it's easy to look at a problem and think, 'Oh we're just missing X, Y, and Z,'" club member and 12th grade student Mary Rose said. "But a lot of the time it's either we have it and we're just misidentifying the problem or we have something very similar that we can adjust very slightly. These are skills I will carry with me as I had to college next Fall. I'm probably going into a related field where they will apply."
The St. Joe Circuit Breakers meet every Tuesday and Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. More information on the club can be found by visiting their Facebook page.
