As the robotics team out of Proviso West and PMSA are finishing up their final weeks getting their robot into winning shape, funds are running low despite efforts from the two high schools’ programs.
Proviso Township High School District 209 brought together two schools, Proviso Math and Science Academy and Proviso West, to create an award-winning robotics team that will go head-to-head in the upcoming Midwest Regional FIRST Robotics Competition. Doing this also pools resources for students to participate in STEM programs.
“We are going against schools that aren’t necessarily in as of an underserved community as we are,” said April Senase, advanced manufacturing teacher at Proviso West. “There are a lot of budget constraints and things like that come into play for us.”
The team, which began working together a year ago, has experienced cost-related delays.
“Where some of these other schools might have an endless budget, we don’t necessarily have that at Proviso,” Senase said.
Diamond Dorsey, 17 and a junior at PMSA, said they are a hardworking team that always tries their best, regardless of their financial situation.
“Even if we are not as fortunate as other teams, we still do what we can and get it done,” Diamond said. “We put a lot of heart and soul into what we do.”
Diamond, who first joined the team her freshman year, said the team could use funding and help from their community.
The merger of the two teams, the Myghty Pythons Robotics Team 2151 at PMSA and the West robotics team, was designed to also give students at PMSA the opportunity to use the manufacturing lab at West.
“We are still in the workings of everything and this is our first year of collaborating here in using the machine shop,” Senase said. “The more the merrier, so anytime we can absorb anybody we need too.”
And Senase means it: Two students who have joined this year are homeschooled.
“They are Proviso Township students but they are homeschooled,” she said. “Their parents reached out to me and said ‘our sons would love to be part of this,’ and I said ‘well why not?’”
Combining the schools inevitably came with “growing pains,” including transportation between schools, but the robotics team is coming into their own.
The STEM program brings exposure for students through FIRST Robotics Competition, an international high school robotics competition held each year where students from across the world work for a six-week period to build robots that can perform tasks.
The building of the robot includes designing, coding, building electrical components, marketing and media.
Students work with other students in these varying “departments” to get the robot ready for competition day. These departments are composed through “tryouts” to help guide students in areas that they will have the most chance of succeeding in.
“Nobody is turned away when we say tryouts; it is not like they can’t do it,” Senase said. “But we do have some expectations.”
Nick Birch, computer science teacher at PMSA and one of the coaches helping the robotic teams, said the opportunity to have hands-on experience through these types of STEM programs is priceless for students.
“They can take a class, they can take computer science but it is not the same,” Birch said. “Here they are actually developing and they are using their computer science skills but they are seeing it in real time and being reactive with equipment. We can’t replicate that in the classroom.”
Depending on their department, some students also undergo certification in order to know how to properly and safely run various machinery.
The robotics team has 34 registered students. Nubia Zapata, 16, said she joined the robotics teams because she knew she wanted to pursue a career in STEM and the team gave her an opportunity to start working toward that. She is co-captain of the robotics team, which is working through ways to program the robot to be able to move on its own.
During the competition, two alliances composed of three robot teams play each other on basketball half-court size fields. Then teams will proceed through qualifying rounds matches played through randomly selected alliance teams. The top eight teams will select two other teams to form an alliance for the playoff matches to compete in the quarterfinal matches. In the end, two alliances will compete for the title.
Last year, the team came in 30 out of around 60 teams.
All of that work is expensive.
“During build season we meet four times a week,” Senase said. “We have to feed these kids, they are here late.”
Community members have participated in meal trains to feed the students while other businesses have donated meals.
But funding for competitions also adds up. Aside from the $6,000 registration fee, students need to be fed throughout the three days they are at the competition and transportation to and from the event needs to be covered.
“We can’t expect parents to do that,” Senase said. “Funding those kinds of things, it comes at a cost.”
According to Senase, the district funded the registration fee but the rest is up to the team.
“It is also a struggle on mentors, we are making pennies per hour,” Senase said, adding that the robotics team mentors have more contact hours with students than any athletic sport. “And yet the stipends for teachers to do this are smaller, they are not there.”
The commitment is for the benefit of students. To give them the opportunity to put that they were on a FIRST team on a resume and the opportunities that it could open.
“Stand behind us and partner with us,” Senase said. “They are the industry experts that can come in here and guide and mentor these students. We need them to take responsibility and build up this community of their future employees so that they can have employees for the future.”
Herman Walter, business and communication teacher at Proviso West and Village of Hillside trustee, said he is looking toward victory.
“Go big or go home!” he said.
The competition will be held March 27 through March 30 and will be held at the University of Illinois.