It might sound like something from a Transformers movie but it’s actually a state of the art class at W.H. Croxford High School.

For the first time in Airdrie, the Academy of Mechatronics was offered to Grade 10 students at the school and over 40 of them are now taking part.

Grade 10 students put together robotic rovers as part of the Academy of Mechatronics at Croxford

At the last RVS Board meeting, some of the students presented the program and their robots to the Trustees.

One of the students participating is Tanya, the only girl in the program this year, who explained what a day in the course looks like.

“The first half of our day is doing mechanics, robotics, computer science, all that. We get to do challenges and also learn a lot more about everything we’d like to do. It’s just going in depth on robotics and coding.”

Teacher John Remus-Everrit helped bring the program to Croxford and the robots the students are building are based on rover models created by NASA.

Remus-Everrit said there are already plans to expand the program.

“We’re moving our program into Grade 11 and we’re opening it up to the Grade 10s again. We’ll have 32 Grade 10s and about the same number of Grade 11s involved in the program next year.”

With Croxford being the first Airdrie school to offer such a program as this, many including Grade 10 student Tyler believe that’s a great accomplishment to be a part of.

“It’s very interesting. I’ve had a very fun time this year and it is cool to say that I’m one of the first people in Mechatronics and I do see it expanding and growing to different schools and other grades. There are still tweaks that are going to be made.”

 

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