Robotics

The mission of the Seattle Academy Robotics program is to offer willing students a place to learn foundational skills in building, coding, and business administration. For students that want to excel and commit more time they will have an opportunity to explore high engineering problems and advanced coding techniques. We believe deeply in a student run program with mentors to give support and vision. Students are assigned project manager roles and participate in weekly engineering planning. Students have to manage budget restrictions and sponsorship and public relations for the club. Through the season, student have a sense of ownership and commitment to the program that far exceeds any teacher led projects.

Seattle Academy manages three to four teams in FTC Robotics which is part of the National FIRST robotics program. Seattle Academy supports this program as a club that meets 3-4 times a week after school with three SAAS teachers devoted to mentoring students through the season. The program has produced highly competitive teams that have competed at the World Championships in Houston along with winning the Washington State Championship.

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Upper School Robotics Calendar

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More Than Robots:

The Red Shift program spends a lot of time designing, building, and testing robots but our program includes a significant community service component. In the last two years, Red Shift has done more than 4,000 hours of community outreach. Students have taught robotics to elementary students, they have volunteered at Unified Robotics, built and donated NXT robots to students in Zambia, mentored other robotics team in both FRC, FTC, and FLL and motivated local professionals to support and mentor FIRST robotics programs. The program also has many students that work on our engineering notebook that outlines process, designs, and heavily leverages CAD drawings to execute ideas. Students give to community, write about engineering processes, and use modern software to accelerate our designs. The team is more than robots.

Cost and Family Involvement:

Red Shift robotics is supported and run by Seattle Academy but our program thrives with the support of families. The monetary support for the team comes in two forms. 1) Snack sign ups. Students come to practice for three hours after school and our coveted snack closet very much is a needed part of the program. Parents are asked to provide snacks for the club occasionally usually through an online sign up. 2) World Championships travel. For the most part, all of our competitions are in State and close by. In the event that a team qualifies for the World Championship we will ask families to cover some of the cost of the trip. It is expected that this cost is between $500-$800 per student.

Our robotics lab

Photo of Seattle Academy Upper School Student in the Robotics Lab

In the Fall of 2016 Seattle Academy opened a brand new robotics lab to students. In the basement of our beautiful STREAM building, we have a shop with a mill, lathe, drill press, and band saw. The larger workshop is fully equipped with power tools, hand tools, electrical equipment, raw materials, and all things robots.