Mike Lewis
When robots are powering up, picking up objects and navigating through a complex course amongst the halls at Carroll ISD, there’s always a team of Dragons behind the controller. But behind those students is Leah Schwedler. As the lead instructor for Carroll ISD’s robotics program, Leah helps students design, build, program and control their own robots for local and global competitions. Now heading into her 10th year as Carroll ISD’s preeminent robotics expert, Leah looks forward to another season of Carroll robotics as her students prepare their return to the 2024 VEX World Championships.
WHEN I FIRST STARTED TEACHING… at Carroll ISD, I was actually planning to teach math. But shortly after my arrival, the STEM program was starting up, and I was getting more involved with robotics. My background is in mechanical engineering, so when I learned they were looking for an instructor, I got the certifications I needed and moved into teaching robotics.
ROBOTICS IS ALL ABOUT… problem-solving. The students have a task in front of them, and they have to figure out a solution. Each challenge is different, but they all generally involve manipulating some sort of object and placing it in something. Sometimes there are barriers to overcome, and sometimes they have to launch objects or stack them together. It’s up to the students to build a robot to accomplish the goals they need to.
WHAT I PARTICULARLY ENJOY ABOUT ROBOTICS IS… it isn’t so much teaching as much as it is facilitating. It’s my job to give students the tools they need, but it’s their responsibility to take those little bits of information and apply it to solve a task. It’s being a different type of educator, and I often find that I’m learning at the same time my students are.
OUR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS DO A… classroom-style competition where they work in small groups and are given shorter tasks to accomplish. It’s all about learning how to make a claw, how to make your robot drive forward, how to make your robot turn. Once they’ve done that, they’ll move on to other more complex tasks such as making their robot play a game of soccer or do a ring toss.
WHEN STUDENTS ENTER THEIR SECOND YEAR, THAT’S WHEN… they’re going to take everything they learned and put everything together. We have scheduled design reviews where we go over their progress. What is your schedule? What are your team roles? How are you keeping track of your goals? What’s the status of your code and design? It pushes them to get prepared for competition and to perform engineering at a higher level.
MANY PEOPLE DON’T REALIZE THAT… there are so many entry-level ways to get into coding. You don’t have to have a high-level programming background to control a robot. Many students will use what they know in physics and calculus to get their robot from point A to point B as fast and accurately as it can. Even though some of our teams are using extremely complex algorithms, it’s also very possible to jump right in and make a robot drive forward. That pushes them to want to learn more — that’s what’s so great about robotics.
ONE OF MY BIGGEST POINTS OF PRIDE IS… we’ve had at least one team compete at VEX World Championships since 2014. Only the top 2-5% of teams in the world qualify for the championships, and we’ve had teams compete every single year. Two years ago, we had nine teams compete at Worlds, which was the most of any single organization. We have consistently had competitive teams year after year, and I’m really proud that my kids can perform at that high of a level.