Every Tuesday and Thursday after school, Oregon City School District high schoolers descend upon Room C110 at the 12th Street Campus for a team meeting unlike many others.
These high schoolers will build a robot to then compete against other teams in matches, and with it, build skills to set them up for academic success and life after high school via mentorship and career exploration, shaping them into valuable community members.
Recruitment for Skynet, OCSD's F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Team 2550, just opened up and high schoolers across the district have until Dec. 17th to join.
The team is nearly 30 strong and is looking to grow.
Skynet provides students the chance to explore STEM careers through mentorship from local community members working in the trades and through F.I.R.S.T's program, an international nonprofit focused on advances STEM K-12 education via robotics competitions. Joining Skynet is free of charge.
Skynet works around an "off-season", which runs from the end of summer to Jan. 9th, when the team finds out what their competitions challenge for the year is, and a "competition season", which runs from Jan. 9th until April. Last year's theme was archeology-based. The team uses the off-season to train new recruits and show them the ropes of competitions.
While the unifying factor foe the team, building a robot just scratches the surface of everything students will do.
Students have the opportunity to earn CTE credit towards graduation, and learn skills that will set up for success once they enter the workforce, from machining, welding, electrical work and programming to CAD (computer aided design).
Becky Miller, assistant coach of Skynet and science teacher at Clackamas Academy of Industrial Sciences, knows several students who've graduated and gone on to start careers in engineering or the trades. She recently provided a letter of recommendation for a Skynet alum who currently works in a machine shop and is now looking to become an electrician.
"If [F.I.R.S.T.] is on your resume, people know it," Miller said.
For college-bound students, the number of opportunities for scholarships from F.I.R.S.T. are numerous, Miller said.
Beyond the trades, students also learn ever-important soft skills like teamwork, collaboration, and professionalism — skills employers and colleges consistently seek.
"Every single one of our team members has graduated with professional skills that they can take on," Miller said. "What they learn in robotics is applicable to what they are doing or what they will do next."
During competitions, F.I.R.S.T. emphasizes the practice of gracious professionalism during competitions and coopertition, a hybrid between cooperation and competition.
"If we can't have a fair competition, t hen nobody's having fun, and we didn't really win, right?" Miller said.
For students not interested in engineering or the trades, the team offers a plethora of opportunities relating to business and other fields.
"If you're willing to work and learn," Miller said, "we want you."
The team has its own marketing and finance departments, and as a student-led endeavor, it is the team members themselves who fundraise and engage in community outreach.
Last year, Skynet received funding from OCSD to build and design a miniature robot they call a bugbot. Using the bugbot, the team visited every fourth grade classroom in the district to teach a lesson electricity, energy, and energy transfer. The lesson was in line with Next Generation Science Standards, which governs K-12 science education standards.
Every fourth grader got to take home a bugbot.
'The bugbots also made an appearance at First City Fest in July, where the team once again handed out more of the miniature robots in addition to showing off their large competition robot.
"They were trying to bring interest into STEM and tech," Miller said.
In February, the team also visited the state capital in Salem to advocate for increased funding in STEM and CTE education, speaking with members of the state legislature.
"This was all team motivated and team driven," Miller said.
Skynet's most recent community endeavor was centered around rebuilding their t-shirt cannon. The team brought their revamped t-shirt cannon to the Homecoming football game, launching shirts from the sidelines.
Recruitment ends Dec. 17th. For more information, students can reach out to Becky Miller and check out the team's website. Meetings occur Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Room C110 at the 12th Street Campus.