(Radio Iowa) – For the first time this fall, students at Oskaloosa High School are being offered a robotics course, where they’re learning all about 3-D printing and electronics, while also soaking in important lessons about teamwork and leadership. Teacher Cory Sheeley says the 14 students who are taking the premiere class are very enthusiastic about the topic and they’re growing in ways they probably didn’t expect.

“Students are communicating every day,” Sheeley says. “They show up to class and they do what’s called a scrum, and they’re all standing for five minutes and they’re having a conversation about what they’re going to do today, what they did yesterday, they’re assigning tasks to each person, and they’re trying to basically accomplish building a robot.”

While this is the first year for the class, students at Osky High have been competing for at least 15 years in what’s known as the FIRST Tech Challenge or F-T-C, a competitive robotics program that encourages inter-team collaboration across multiple schools. In the latest version of the contest, they’re building robots with claws that are designed to grab blocks.

Sheeley says, “The goal is to basically pick these blocks up — for this year’s game — and either put them in the low basket, which is four points, high basket is eight points, hang them on the high rung, which would be 10 points, low rung is six points.” Four competing robots will be in the ring, simultaneously grabbing blocks in a two-and-a-half minute duel, with an “end game” where the robots have to park or hook themselves in a certain area.

Photo courtesy Oskaloosa High School

During part of the contest, the robots will have to be controlled by two students, and at other times, autonomously grab the blocks without any human help. Sheeley says the students are focused on what could be their future careers, diving into hands-on engineering, problem-solving and team-building.

“You can see students getting better and better at that each day,” Sheeley says. “They’re constantly communicating with each other about who needs to do what, if somebody’s slacking, ‘Hey, I need you to do this.’ They’re managing each other, and I think that that’s a pretty good skill for the workforce.”

Sheeley, who also teaches courses including calculus, coding and statistics, says he’s thrilled to see robotics moving from an after-school club to a full in-school class.