Hey coyotes! During the month of January we got the opportunity to learn more about the Robotics program here at Buena Park High School. Robotics is one of the ROP courses that our school has to offer and is a great class for students to expand their knowledge and creativity. Students are given the chance to build and work with the robots they create and even attend competitions with them.
While exploring the Robotics program here at BPHS, we decided to get more specific details about the program by holding interviews with students and the teacher himself. Here’s what they had to say!
Alexis Villa started off by asking Mr. Neyme “Can you explain to us what ARM is?”
Mr. Neyme says “ARM stands for Advanced Robotics and Mechatronics so its designed to teach kids about robotics, about advanced manufacturing, also known as industry 4.0 so they get a lot of hands on skills as well as technical knowledge.”
Alexis then asks “How long have you been teaching this program and why?”
Mr. Neyme says “I’ve been teaching this program now I want to say going on five years, I took over when it was brand new and, you know, I enjoy it, I think the kids enjoy it because they’re actually testing what they are learning so there’s a lot of hands on things that they do and they get to see the results right away, and it’s a three year program so one of the things I like about it is I get to see the same kids year after year so I really get to know them by the time they get out of high school.”
Alexis proceeds by asking “Can you explain to us what you needed to become a teacher for the program?”
Mr. Neyme said “Well, I think a good background in either math or science, especially physics would be very helpful, you know personally I came here to actually teach math and this position opened up I walked into the classroom and I fell in love with it but to teach it full time you do need what’s called also a CTE credential, especially in the manufacturing and product design.”
Alexis continues by asking “What does a year look like in your classroom?”
Mr. Neyme says “It changes, it’s a lot, it’s a three year program but let’s just talk about the first year since this is what most students will probably take. They learn a lot of I would call industry 4.0 skills from hand tools, from acdc electrical, to pneumatics, to robot programming, sensors, how to read print reading, so basically setting them up to maybe become a technician somewhere and then now the second semester they build a catapult, they get to test it and then they build a rover that they get to program to drive by itself and avoid obstacles and then they do a big challenge at the end of the year that’s a lot of fun.”
Alexis ends the interview by asking “Can you tell us about the competition coming up and what would happen if you win?”
Mr. Neyme explains “We have what’s called Skills USA which is a big CTSO and not just to California but the whole US and worldwide and we compete in different competitions, a couple of them are in leadership. The two big ones that we are really in, one is driving the rover through the challenge course and then the other one is operating a robot, an actual ARM. If kids make it to or win the regional, if they finish in the top 4 they get to go to state and state is held in April, in Ontario. If we win state, we have to finish first place, we get to go to nationals in Atlanta in June.”
After hearing Mr. Neyme’s perspective, we wanted to dive deeper into the program and see what it is like on behalf of the students. Here’s what they had to say.
Crystal Zavala started off by asking Diego Echeverria “Can you explain what ARM is?”
Diego says “ARM stands for Advanced Robotics and Mechatronics. Robotics refers to the actual robots, we have three models inside where you can learn to teach them and control them so that
can do multiple different tasks over and over again. Mechatronics refers to different systems such as hydrologic or electric or pneumatic.”
Crystal then asks “We know you have a competition coming up, can you tell us about it?”
Diego says “The Skills USA competition is coming up correct. There are multiple different competitions within that one. There’s one where you build a car and you test it. The one I’m in is where I control a smaller robot to do a task or moving parts to a conveyor. There’s a drone one and multiple others but I don’t have them memorized.”
Crystal ended by asking “What courses does this class give to you for your future?”
Diego says “There’s a future, what this class really provides is multiple certificates, many of them you can actually get a job with the certificates alone. The job can pay as little as minimum wage but can go over $80,000 a year.”
With that being said, we are beyond grateful to have been able to explore the robotics industry and takeaway that this career pathway is a great option for those who are interested in technology and machinery. We hope that any of you reading this are interested in taking this class next year. Thank you Coyotes!
