Science teacher Fred Brown, who introduced robotics to Chapman last year, is back again as the coach for the 2023-2024 robotics season.
Every season has a new game, which consists of various challenges that the robots have to complete in order to gain points.
The new game this season is called Over Under.
The main goal of this game is to move as many acorn-shaped “tri-balls” into different parts of the field to score as many points as possible.
For every ball scored in a goal, five points are earned.
Points can also be earned in other ways, like when a robot hangs on something called an elevation bar at the end of a match. The higher your robot hangs, the more points you can earn.
“Right now, the teams are building something called the ‘Hero Bot’ and learning how to play the game,” Brown said. “They will then come back and be a part of figuring out how to make (the robot) better and how to change it.”
Several team members have previous experience with robotics at the middle school level, in addition to a number of new faces joining robotics for the first time ever.
Freshman LiviCooke is one of the members of the robotics team this year.
“(I wanted to join high school robotics because) I did robotics in middle school and our teams did well,” Cooke said. “(I’m looking forward to) the new field design and getting to meet the new teams at competitions.”
One of Brown’s goals is to engage students who might not otherwise have an activity to participate in at Chapman.
“I think (this program) provides a different outlet for students to get involved,” Brown said. “I definitely want to just build the program (in the future).”
