It wasn’t a revolutionary announcement. Or maybe it was.
West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission has made robotics a recognized co-curricular activity, like football and marching band.
If you’re a little confused, it may be because Morgantown already has a robotics team and has for over a decade. MARS (Morgantown Area RoboticS) has been winning national and international competitions for years, but it’s never been a formally recognized school activity. This means its accomplishments aren’t acknowledge the way athletic wins are (think banners in the gym and varsity jackets), and it doesn’t receive funding from the school system.
The goal in making robotics a WVSSAC sanctioned activity is to make it more widely available in schools across the state. Morgantown is lucky to be a fairly affluent area whose residents can afford tech-based extracurriculars or have sponsors who can provide scholarships and generous donations.
With our world becoming increasingly dependent on technology and our schools pushing STEM classes, robotics programs are an amazing way to take scientific and mechanical concepts off the textbook page and into practice. When learning is fun, kids do more of it — in and out of the classroom.
Bringing robotics into the WVSSAC’s fold also opens the program to receive state and county funding, such as through levies like the one Monongalia County recently passed. (It’s too late for robotics to receive levy funds this time, but it could be included in the next school levy.)
For the last two weeks, the Sunday opinion pages were filled with letters from grateful MTEC students who understand what the community has given them.
They expressed gratitude for the Chromebooks that allowed them to continue school through the first part of the pandemic; for the counselors who connect them to resources for college and life, or just listen; for the nurses who take care of them when they feel ill during school hours; for the advanced placement classes that allow them to challenge themselves and earn college credits; for the arts programs that allow them to express their creativity; and for the before- and after-school programs and the extracurricular activities that give them a safe, fun place to be because they may not be able to go home yet — or just because they want to be there.
Investments in education, particularly local supplements such as the school levy, are the reason that Monongalia County has some of the best schools in the state and can boast it has a Yale award-winning AP physics teacher as well as a nursing director who received the first ever Excellence in School Nursing Award. It’s why we have seventh graders who are ranked seventh in the world for problem-solving.
West Virginia consistently ranks last or close to last in almost everything, but delivering quality, engaging early education is a key step to climbing the ranks in multiple categories. Expanding access to STEM-based extracurriculars like robotics across the state and financially supporting our school systems are just two ways we make that happen.
