Photo courtesy of Pam Hickman.
From left: Rahul P., Keene Z., Dexin K. and Yihan Z. The Robotics Team attended two competitions this year. It came in third in Anniston and second in Centre. In the future, robotics team sponsor Pam Hickman hopes to take the robotics team to more competitions on the state and national level, as well as a world championship in spring 2017.
Vestavia Hills High School successfully completed its first robotics competition season with active participation. In the upcoming year, VHHS is offering a robotics class as an elective for students in grades nine through 12.
The robotics class is specifically designed for students on the VHHS Robotics Team. They will be working with VEX robots and RobotC programming software and will participate in VEX Robotics Competitions.
The Robotics Team attended two competitions this year. It came in third in Anniston and second in Centre. In the future, robotics team sponsor Pam Hickman hopes to take the team to more competitions on the state and national level, as well as a world championship in spring 2017.
Hickman is in her second year teaching at VHHS. Her course originated as an information technology and programming vocational course for students called IT Pathway Programming, but has transformed into a robotics team spinoff.
“My goal is to let the kids have fun while learning,” Hickman said, “whether it’s a lot of students or just a small, tight-knit group.”
Hickman attended school for business education and shifted her coursework from accounting to technology-based classes. She currently teaches Information Technology Fundamentals as part of the high school’s Career Technical Education courses, designed as a college preparatory program for students to explore various career paths.
Through CTE, students complete an assessment and their interests are matched with different career opportunities to explore a personal career plan. The courses offered at VHHS range from business and finance to the medical field. CTE also offers internship and on-site work-based learning opportunities in their curriculum for 11th- and 12th-grade students.
“Everything we do is based in technology,” Hickman said. “We all carry cellphones and laptops and tablets — someone had to program that. We need people who know how to code and read code in all fields — not only programming, for marketing, website design and troubleshooting in any career field.”
This year, Information Technology Fundamentals taught around 40 students C Sharp, HTML 5, JavaScript, web programming and coding. Eleven students even took the Microsoft Technology Associate Certification for software development, an adult-level professional assessment, and three passed.
“Whether college bound or entering the workforce straight out of high school, these courses are for anyone interested in technology,” Hickman said. “Some kids will use this knowledge in future business ventures and some will attend prestigious colleges.”
In the upcoming year, VHHS will also be offering a Java Programming class for 10th- through 12th-grade students to explore more advanced coding and web programming. Hickman is hoping to recruit Microsoft volunteers to help with some lessons.
“I’m hoping to have about ten to 15 students in the robotics class next year and maybe 20 enrolled in Java Programming,” Hickman said.
“These classes teach kids to be lifelong learners,” Hickman added. “None of us will ever be experts in technology since it’s constantly changing, but we need to know how to find answers and build off of that information.”
