Kids with disabilities play with adapted electronic toys, with smiles etched across their faces, as the robotics team watches on knowing they made this possible.
“We got in contact with an occupational therapist four years ago,” said senior Robotics team captain Cassie Colby. “They initially wanted us to make adaptations for iPads.”
Sophomore Annalise Gudiksen said the program began four years ago.
“For the past three years it has been a project within the team, developing these toys,” Gudiksen said.
Gudiksen said the toys are meant for children with mental or physical disabilities.
“Generally it’s like physical mobility issues in the arm, where they have some movement, but it might just be a very crude movement of the arm, and they don’t have very fine control over that movement,” Gudiksen said.
Gudiksen said that these children often have trouble with small buttons, so they can’t operate normal electronic toys.
“We adapt them so that instead of there being a small switch that they wouldn’t be able to use, there is a large button they are able to press to turn a toy on,” Gudiksen said.
Colby said they have designed RC cars, special iPads, and more.
“We design a variety of electronic toys. It’s super fun to see them use the toys, just to put a smile on their face and have an experience they wouldn’t otherwise be able to have,” Colby said.
Junior design team member Alex Schluening said the robotics team is focusing on community outreach right now.
“The actual technical side of it is not too complicated, so we use it to show middle schoolers what robotics is like,” Gudiksen said.
Gudiksen said the robotics team is very accessible to people, so they try to make sure people know about it through the program.
“We’ve had two programs so far for elementary and middle school students. Teaching them the basics of adapting the toys, so they can get a taste of what robotics is like, without a high barrier for entry,” Gudiksen said. “We provide everything so it’s easy for kids to just show up and see if they like robotics.”
Colby said they have seen a lot of growth recently in the robotics team.
“When I started our team was 30 people, now I think we have doubled that to 60 people,” Colby said. “It’s super cool to see everyone come together to do the thing[robotics] they are interested in, but as a community.”
Schluening said through their growth in size, the team has made a lot of development in and out of competitions.
“During my freshman and sophomore year we developed a scouting system, to look at other teams and track everyone’s performance. Now over 800 teams use it, so it was super cool to see that growth,” Colby said.
Colby said it has been great to see people she has mentored join the team and then thrive.
“It’s been really fun, it doesn’t feel like it is like a box we have to check. There’s been kids who I have mentored and then they join the team, and they do super well, and you get to see them develop,” Colby said.
The team’s size and strength has translated to fifth at a recent competition in San Francisco, and an overall record of 22-20 for the year.
