When students walk the halls of Nixa High School, they will see many flyers for the school’s many different clubs, from DnD to Podcasts to Poetry, the options are as varied as the students of Nixa. But there is a literal cog in the machine: Robotics.

“This is the sixth year that I have been doing robotics, I started in 2018,” Robert Hodapp, sergeant First Class and instructor of the Robotics club, Archery team and class, and JROTC said.

 Hodapp chose to start the program as a new part of JROTC, which at the time was beginning to transition to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) related activities. Nixa is the first JROTC program to introduce robotics, acting as a pilot for their brigade of 150 JROTC programs across the Midwest. This also fell in with their Cyberpatriot program, a JROTC program where students find weak points in code.

Student Auston Bayless chose to join this year due to the teamwork and travel. He said he believes that the club is beneficial due to it improving students’ lives outside of the club.

 “It is building the minds of future engineers to help build machines for the workforce and improves our everyday use and how we control our lives,” Bayless said.

Each season, the robotics team must design and build a robot based on the goals and problems of the specific game, all designs and steps must be recorded in a Discovery Journal. The team must decide whether the robot must be fast or slow, what type of manipulators you need, and if the robot needs to be able to climb. Often, students who have done the club in the past will teach newer students.

The team is very competitive and good teamwork is required. The robots require a lot of time to build.

“It’s really fast pace and it takes anywhere from 10-80 hours to make a competition robot, and we only have a club for 2 hours,” Hodapp said. While other schools have a robotics class for 1-2 hours every day, Nixa only has a 2-hour club once a week after school on Wednesdays. Therefore, Nixa Robotics cannot allow any setbacks or wasted time, all members must focus on the task at hand and utilize all time wisely.

If anyone is interested in joining they just have to be willing to attend and learn and commit to the team. Participation in JROTC is not required. Anyone with prior knowledge of robotics and/or coding would be a good fit. 

“You really don’t need any skills. We will teach you everything you need to know,” Hodapp said. 

Those interested in joining can talk to Hodapp. The club is featured in the JROTC room, room 181 on Wednesdays from 3-5.