New year, new robots

The robotics team is looking to compete in the 14th annual STEM Trifecta

Jaime Corley, Staff Writer
November 10, 2021

The mark of a new school year brings another year of competition to the robotics team. English Teacher Lacy Krell is the sponsor. It is her fifth year sponsoring the team.

Krell first got the initiative to sponsor the club after her son, senior Xander Krell, showed interest in STEM programs. Krell saw that Salem needed a team sponsor and decided to volunteer for the role. She felt as though “it would be awfully hypocritical of me to criticize one school for failing to provide a sponsor for a valuable program and then refuse to sponsor the same valuable program.”

The team touches on subjects such as coding, programming, building and designing. 

Xander Krell and other members of the Robotics team at a Landstown Robotics Competition pre-COVID practicing on the game they designed. (Lacy Krell)

“I love the creativity,” said Krell, “and the problem solving that students use in order to create a robot and bring it to life with limited materials.”

Like most clubs, the pandemic has impacted how the club runs.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in our membership being halved last season due to it being completely programming based in 2020,” said Robotics team member senior Noah Christianson.

The pandemic has also made the competition aspect different. 

“It was a weird season that did not match our usual goals/objectives,” said Krell. 

According to Krell, the usual atmosphere of the club is one that makes learning and bonding easy due to the club being “a relaxed crew of motivated self-starters” and much of the interesting aspects of the club have to do with “how different minds approach the same problem and how collaboration helps us to land on the best solutions.”

Being on the team also helps with plans after high school. The team looks good on college applications, as well as provides students with an environment to nurture their interest in robotics. 

“If I wasn’t in robotics I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to get certain Microsoft certifications,” said Christianson. Also, the team is a ”good way to meet people with similar interests” Christianson added. 

The team is open for anyone who has an interest in building hardware and coding software. The team gets started in December.