MBJH robotics program gains momentum in the classroom

Fletcher Nunnelley, a rising freshman at Mountain Brook Junior High School, has no qualms about staying after school to learn how to build and program a robot. In fact, he’s more than OK with sacrificing a few precious hours of summer vacation to unlock the classroom doors and dust off a few classroom robots. 

Standing in front a three dimensional grid meant to act as an obstacle course for small robots to navigate, Nunnelley explained what he and a few other students have been doing after school for the past year. 

“What you try to do is get the [robots] to the poles — that’s the scoring zone,” Nunnelley said, pointing to the perimeter of the grid. “Each one of the poles is five points, and if it’s color coded, then it’s worth 10 points.” 

Nunnelley is one of about 100 students at Mountain Brook Junior High School who has participated in the school’s after-school robotics program. Led by robotics coach James Salvant, the program has become a popular extracurricular activity for students who crave hands-on science and math learning. Because the robotics program has grown substantially over the past three years, the school recently decided to move it from an after-school only class to a curriculum-based course. 

“We started with about 10 [students] our first year,” said Salvant, who was recruited to the school a couple years ago to specifically teach robotics.

With science and math jobs in high demand, Salvant said teaching robotics at a young age just makes sense. Plus, he said, students tend to prefer the interactive learning style. 

“It’s discovery based,” Salvant said while sitting in the school’s designated robotics classroom where former and current students maneuver and drive the small robots — most of which they built themselves. “They’re learning by doing and thriving in the process.” 

Mountain Brook’s robotics program, Salvant said, is a part of Project Lead the Way — a nonprofit organization that provides a transformative learning experience for K-12 students and teachers across the United States. The program, Salvant said, is also a part of a larger Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative. 

“Before, they didn’t have any kind of engineering [program] here,” Salvant said of the school’s curriculum. “So the logical first steps were to get a robotics program.” 

Students who enroll in the program get to compete with others across the world who are programming robots to navigate the same course, Salvant continued. Every year, the program introduces a field — or an obstacle course — that students navigate in teams of four. Each team builds a robot, Salvant said, and has to document their design process every step of the way. 

“Last year we had 223 robots in Alabama registered to play and 16,000 worldwide, so it’s a worldwide game,” he said. 

Last year, the school’s robotics team competed at the VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. After two days of intense competition against top teams from more than 30 countries, the team won their division and concluded the competition ranked fifth in the world. 

Salvant said he’s hoping for the program to gain more momentum and reach more students next year because it will be accessible during classroom hours. 

“Everybody that wants to come is welcome to come,” he said. “It’s a place to learn — and what kid doesn’t want to build a robot?”