Duchesne Robotics 2019 Season

This past robotics season, Duchesne’s Iron Plaid team epitomized girl power. From building their robot to competing in tournaments to supporting each other, the team members were models of female representation in STEM.

The team is made up of students ranging from grades 8th through 12th. Each person has a different set of jobs to do, varying from programming to public relations.  Every job on the team gives the girls opportunities to grow and expand their leadership skills. As sophomore Caroline Crowder says, “I think Iron Plaid has helped me cultivate new relationships, be more confident in my skills with power tools, and help share the message of empowering girls in STEM.”

Team captain and junior Lena Shadow explains, “The robotics season is divided into 3 parts: pre-season, build season, and competition season. During pre-season, we spend about 6 weeks training our girls in different subject areas so that they feel confident in their abilities for build season.”

The training is intensive, teaching the girls skills like digital design, electrics, and coding. This allows each girl to find her niche for build season, helping her grow in her strengths and take ownership of her role in the team.

Shadow continues, “Build season is a period of 6 weeks that we have to build a robot from scratch. It starts with Kickoff on the first Saturday of January, when we’re given the rules of the game and this year’s challenges. We design and prototype a robot in the first week and use the remaining 5 to build and test it. During build season, each team member puts in about 200 hours.”

She adds, “Competitions are really fun. We’ve participated in two competitions this season, in both of which we got to semi-finals. District qualifying competitions have about 35 teams, and World Championships have over 402 teams. Each match has 6 teams and 2 alliances (3 teams on each alliance). Each alliance competes to score points in a match that lasts for 2 minutes and thirty seconds. The alliance with the most points wins.”

However, teams can also earn points for their STEM social awareness, team spirit, professionalism, robot design, and financial responsibility. Duchesne’s Iron Plaid has won the engineering inspiration award for the past 7 years. This year, the team also won the gracious professionalism and imagery awards.

The season ended with the World Championships. Iron Plaid was there, supporting teammate and Dean’s List winner Sophia Varner.

Varner says, “I had dreamed being a Dean’s List nominee since I was a freshman, and I truly am grateful beyond measure for my teammates, who inspire and teach me every day how to better myself by helping others.”