Women hold only 18 percent of college undergraduate computer science degrees and 26 percent of computing jobs. Members of Bellarmine’s team, “The Cheesy Poofs,” compete at the FIRST Robotics Competition, Silicon Valley Regionals at SJSU in April 2016. February/March 2017 67 PENG YAV they usually have no problem spewing out ideas, but by the time they get to middle school, they tend to lose that confidence,” says Grau. “They’ll say ‘My teacher asked me to brainstorm 10 ideas; I don’t have those ideas, so clearly I’m not a creative person.’ We try to combat that by explaining that everyone is creative; it just may take people different amounts of time to come up with ideas.” A third part of the Design Thinking mindset involves attitude toward failure. “When that thing doesn’t work, now what? Instead of just giving up on it, we ask, ‘What would you do differently?’ and keep pushing forward on the idea,” Grau says. Nueva, and other schools like Harker, Valley Christian, Stratford, Notre Dame and Castillja, invite kids in grades 4 to 8 to participate in the FIRST Lego Leagues, where they create robots using Lego Mindstorms kits. Last year’s theme, Animal Allies, challenged kids to design robots that would do things like feed an animal, and fit a prosthesis to a pet. At Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose, middle school students participate in other competition programs run by VEX robotics. It centers its challenges around accessible and affordable robotics for kids, and invites them to compete regionally, nationally and even globally. Once kids hit the ninth grade, they are eligible for the FIRST Robotics Competition. In these district to global events, high school teams create robots that are often big and heavy and can handle a variety of tasks, such as stacking bins and recycling litter, throwing a ball into a hoop, and scaling a “castle.” NOT JUST FOR TECHIES Most robotics teams do a lot more than design and build robots. Usually some of the team members also like taking charge of the websites and social media, doing outreach to businesses for sponsorships and mentors, grant-writing and even handling administration. At The Harker School, Nelson designed the program to work like a Silicon Valley startup. “I act as the board of directors along with the other faculty,” he explains. “The students elect key officers.” That includes the CEO, chief technology and operations officers. Other students in the club decide which area they want to be a part of, such as software design, outreach, or promotion. “They can go to the same cycle as a startup will go through,” says Nelson. Sometimes they “go public” and enter competitions. “And sometimes we go ‘Chapter 11,’ and our robot goes down in flames in front of the students’ peers. It’s a very public failure when it happens, but just as they are responsible for the failures, they can take credit for the successes.” Daniela Obringer, a sophomore at Valley Christian School in San Jose, chose to get involved in the business side of the team’s activities. “You definitely get a lot of experience that you wouldn’t get,” she said. “It connects you with different businesses, giving you hands-on experience in the field. You learn how to negotiate and pitch ideas.” Peng Yav, who leads the robotics program at Bellarmine, says his program fills a particular niche for Bellarmine students who aren’t athletes and aren’t in the school’s Speech and Debate club. “It gives them the opportunities to collaborate with peers who have similar interests,” he says. MENTORS HELP PREPARE STUDENTS FOR REAL-WORLD CHALLENGES A key part of many middle and high school programs is the practice of inviting mentors to help kids with not just building their robots, but also with other aspects the project, such budgeting and marketing. “They get exposed to the working world, (continued on pg 104)
South Bay Accent - Feb/Mar 2017
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