As we wrapped up the 2016/2017 Robotics year in BC, our teams, their successes in the BC Provincial and Pacific Northwest Regional Competitions, and the growth of student robotics in BC garnered significant media attention. Here’s a roundup of some great quotes, and the articles they came from.
The Vancouver Courier interviewed teams at Gladstone as they prepped for the Worlds, and tapped into how much effort students put in.
“To help with those nerves, students pour in hundreds of hours’ worth of leg work and go through close to 10 iterations of a single bot before it’s go time. The 2017 contest task was announced last fall, and from there, the methodical pre-scout began: combing over YouTube for design tips, exchanging ideas via online forums and liaising with other participants from as far off as China and New Zealand.”
Read the full article Vancouver students battle for bot supremacy
CBC also talked with Gladstone. Here are some great quotes from Paul Wallace, teacher and robotics coach at Gladstone:
“It’s wonderful to work in something where the kids are so engaged,” said Wallace. “I don’t have to do a lot of encouragement to work on the robots; it’s more like trying to get them to leave the room when I want to go home at nine o’clock.”
Read B.C. high school students heading to world robotics competition
And perhaps our favorite headline “ At Gladstone Secondary School, the robotics program has achieved a unique status: It’s both cool and nerdy at the same time.”
Finally, a proud coaching comment from Paul “… by the time students are in Grade 12, they know way more than he does about programming. “We can lead them and coach them and see when an idea is going haywire,” he said. “In general, I could not out-program the top kids in the room. They spend hundreds of hours on doing this.”
Read the rest of the Vancouver Sun article
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