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Robots Invade Keystone Oaks High School
On Friday, January 11, Keystone Oaks hosted the 2019 robotics competition. Thirty-three different schools competed for first place by building and coding a robot from scratch. The rules of the game are released at the end of the previous school year so from then until the day of the competition, the students in robotics start to make their robots.
First-year students in robotics are not able to compete in the tournament because they have to take the basic class first then advanced before they get to participate. First-year students show up as volunteers and help set up arenas and help que. Sophomore, Rutger Randall, was a volunteer this year. He helped set up the arenas after the robots compete in them. His job was to set up the caps, balls, and flags for the next match. Also,as a volunteer, you get ten community service hours and experience for upcoming years.
Senior Luke Garda got into robotics through his teacher, Mrs. Bogdanski.  Her brother is Mr. Oestreich, the robotics teacher.
“Robotics allows you to be creative and it’s not as structured as a normal class and if you put in enough effort you get to see a great end result of your work,” said Garda.
Garda and his fellow classmates worked on their robot for an hour a day for the past six months.
If you want to join robotics you just have to be “creative and like building things for yourself problem solving, it’s a great club to join and it’s a lot of fun,” stated Garda.
Ben Lubina, a Keystone Oaks senior, likes robotics because “you can do whatever you want, it’s a very free environment.”  
Their robot was made out of aluminum, steel and plastic and worked on agility tasks like picking things up and flipping them.
Christina DeLuca, from Penn Trafford, said, “I like seeing something you put together and manufactured yourself have a great end result it’s a great feeling.”
Penn Trafford also worked on their robot for five months and focused on lifting and flipping caps.
From Forest Hills, Forest Wolfhope said, “You need to have the willingness to learn and adapt on the fly” to be in robotics.
Forest hills only worked on their robot for two and a half months.
Robotics teacher, Mr.Oestreich, said he thinks “my students did very good. Although we had delays on some parts, we managed to work through it and make a competitive robot with a great design.”
Oestreich wasn’t able to participate in robotics in high school because there was no program for it. but he likes that you get to bring together physics math and technology and science, definitely requires a wide variety of skills. He got into teaching robotics because he was looking for a curriculum that was a part of STEM, and he felt this was the best system.