A few grade 12 students founded a Robotics club in our school in the 2021-2022 school year, piquing the interest of several students interested in engineering and coding. As a member and Director of Finance, I witnessed many failed actions that caused the club to be unsuccessful -- in terms of its vision and main goal. I am glad that I learned these lessons early on, so that I don't make these mistakes later in my professional career. I have included a list of everything I learnt over the course of the year from this club. Enjoy!
1. Do something that interests the students!
I cannot stress on how many times -- in general -- how easily students lose their interest in an online learning setting. It’s difficult to manage, even if everyone has their cameras on. In this club, I witnessed many cases where students were not interested in the lessons taught, from basic coding to machine parts. Some students were intrigued, while others weren’t. Many lacked the knowledge of what we really wanted to do: Build an Electric Lawn Mower. It felt more like a “self-project” than a group project, where the plan was that one founder would do everything from scratch to finish. Students also want to be engaged, and they should learn engineering by constructing it as well.
I don’t blame the founders for this; it’s the learning atmosphere we’re in. Doing the club online was difficult, and is difficult. If you’re doing a robotics club, it must be on-campus!
2. Clarify Your Projects
In our decision to create an electric lawn mower, we unnecessarily wasted too much time on deciding the costs for each part. Our school decided to fund the project since they had the capital available, and we had to inform them of a concrete budget. For some odd reason, we decided to show our Principal the plan through a Google Meet session, but never gave him a follow-up email explaining the costs.
When we were informed a few months later that the school did not have have enough capital, we were distraught.
We questioned our Principal and he said that he never got any confirmation. He believed that we were telling him an idea of the cost, not the concrete one. This is when we learned that you need to clearly communicate your plan in an email so that all parties are caught up.
3. Get Projects Done ASAP!
Even if the school did fund our electric lawn mower, we may never have completed it. It was just not possible. We were supposed to get funded early May, which left us only one month before the end of the semester. It would have been chaos and a rush. Again, only one person wanted to do construct it. What we learned is that you need to get funding early in the year, to secure the plan and act accordingly. Maybe by October and November would have been the prime time.
Final Thoughts
The Robotics Club was an amazing place to communicate with others through online learning. However, if you truly want to start a robotics club, you must do it right. From my experience, learning should be experiential. From the beginning of the school year till the end, you want to build something cool with the entire club. Whether it’s a go-kart or a lawn mower, it should intrigue the students!
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