Lake Stevens Robotics
VBots celebrating with team 8931C at their last tournament at the 2020 Washington State High School Championship.
Club advisors Fredin, Coulombe, and Lynass, with former club memebers, now volunteers at the 2019 Turkey Trot Tournament, hosted by Viking Colt Robotics.
Welcome to the Lake Stevens Robotics club, located in Lake Stevens, Washington, where the biggest commitment is to offering a quality robotics experience to any student interested. While the club is split into two groups, the VBots and the CBots, the students and staff in this club work tirelessly to create a positive and creative learning environment for all who seek to learn about robotics. The VBots, who are from Lake Stevens High School, are always ready to help mentor the CBots, who are from the local Mid High School, Cavelero. It's common to see older students working with the younger teams to build robots, write in engineering notebooks, and even to help run competitions for the middle school and elementary school robotics teams.
Moving to a virtual platform takes a toll on learning, especially when it comes to hands-on education like the students in Lake Stevens Robotics have when they build their robots. In order to offset the lost experiences that club members can no longer safely have, the advisors have organized amazing opportunities to continue learning about STEM fields and to help students progress their engineering careers.
VBot ASB club officers having a socially distanced officer meeting.
Now to answer the question everyone's been asking: how does COVID-19 affect the 2020-2021 robotics season? The COVID-19 tab has a detailed explanation of this year's adjusted protocols, so never fear. Students in the Lake Stevens robotics program are fully protected by both the Lake Stevens School District and the Washington State health requirements, and the way the game is played has been adjusted as well, in order to keep everyone healthy.
This year has been chaotic for everyone, so having the upcoming events available here on the website available for parents and newcomers makes it much easier to get reliable information. With COVID-19, there have been major changes to how the game is played and how competitions are run, but parents will still get the information about the game even if they can't attend competitions in person.
Upcoming Events
Guest Speaker: Justin Haynes Dec. 10
Virtual Club Holiday Party Dec. 17
Guest Speaker: Dan Radion Jan. 7
Skills Runs/Virtual Competition Jan. 16
Guest Speaker: Matt Moser Jan. 22
Skills Runs/Virtual Competition Feb. 6
Skills Runs/Virtual Competition Feb. 27
CBots at the 2020 Washington State Middle School Championship tournament.
Lake Stevens Robotics is a place where students can work together to create amazing robots in a creative and educational environment. Attending club meetings online has not dampened club members' appetite for a STEM education either! Throughout the confusing times of virtual learning, Lake Stevens Robotics has remained a place for students to explore STEM fields and think innovatively. If you are interested in joining the club virtually, contact an advisor to get a meeting link!
From the inception of Lake Stevens Robotics in 2012, the club has grown from 12 boys to a diverse club of over 120 students. The club boasts over 20 individual teams with diverse demographics of gender and ethnicity, with a number of "girl powered" teams. The growth of Lake Stevens Robotics from a small club to an established pillar of the community, frequently volunteering with middle and elementary school students, is inspiring to see over the years, as it is shown on the Competition History page.
Lake Stevens Robotics in Sunnyside, Washington before the 2020 Washington State VRC Championship tournament.
Team 8931C Darkside, in November 2019, during a sponsorship request pitch with Electroimpact in Mukilteo, WA. The meeting was with the CEO and Head of Philanthropy, who agreed to a $4,000 sponsorship for Lake Stevens Robotics
Several things help fuel the boundless enthusiasm that drives the students at Lake Stevens Robotics to constantly push the boundaries of achievement. Volunteers from businesses in the STEM fields are frequently invited to mentor students, and countless opportunities to explore STEM fields are provided by the club advisors. The success of the Lake Stevens VBots and CBots is all due to the countless hours that our coaches, parents, and amazing volunteers have dedicated to making our club the absolute best it can be. A special thanks to our sponsors, who make this club possible.
Videos, interviews, and tips about how the game is played, as well as past projects teams have submitted to online competitions are available to be seen on the Lake Stevens Robotics website. It is important to showcase individual teams' hard work when it come to online challenges, so check out the videos and projects created by students.
8931F Firewall's Mk 2 V5 controller Lanyard Holder, an improved version on Jordan Cantu's 2020 Make It Real CAD Engineering Challenge submission.
Team 7784D Scissor Lifts winning the Design Award at the 2020 Washington State Middle School Championship, which is a World Championship qualifying award.
Teams from Lake Stevens Robotics frequently compete in the VEX Washington State Tournament and even have competed at the VEX Worlds competitions, most recently in the 2020 Worlds Championship. Since the club began, Lake Stevens Robotics has sent anywhere from one to three teams to the World Championship, through winning awards such as the Excellence Award and the Design Award, or by being tournament finalists at the Washington State Championship. The most recent World Championship qualification was just last year, at the 2020 Washington State Middle School Championship.
Moving up from VEX IQ, which is the robotics program for elementary and middle school students, is tough. That is why Lake Stevens Robotics encourages its members to volunteer down at the local middle and elementary schools. There, club members are able to not only help IQ students do their best in their competitions, but they can also help prepare the younger kids for what is to come when they move up. Even through distance learning, students from Lake Stevens Robotics continue to be involved in the local IQ programs, helping to ease the transition into virtual robotics.
Grace Davis from 8931R with the LSMS VEX IQ club at the 2020 IQ State Championship. Members from 8931R volunteered to mentor local IQ teams for the season.
Lake Stevens Robotics has always encouraged students to work hard to achieve the best possible results in their STEM career, whether it be during a competition, for an online challenge, or even just to reach a personal goal with their robot. Above all, though, the goal of Lake Stevens Robotics is to provide a quality experience to any student who wants to try robotics, building a welcoming and enjoyable community in the process.