A team of high school students are learning and practicing STEM skills through a robotics program consisting of students from Galesburg, Knoxville and Williamsfield.The Binary Bullets are off to a strong start this year taking first place in a competition that took place on Sunday.
They bested seven other teams from areas like East Moline, Riverdale, Orion and Sherrard.
Knoxville High School Principal Chad Bahnks was in attendance at the competition held at the high school.
He said not only are kids learning these skills but they also proved an ability to think on their feet.
“One of the issues that happened at this particular competition is one of the (robot’s) arms broke so they had to recreate one right on the spot,” Bahnks says. “Anytime anything breaks down they’ve got to quickly think of something to fix it and make it go so they can compete.”
The Binary Bullets meet on a weekly basis and practice certain engineering skills like keeping an engineering notebook.
Coaches and mentors guide the students in adapting a reusable robot kit for the competitions.
The robot can be programmed using a several different languages including Java.
Bahnks says in high school around the nation coding is being heavily emphasized due to how big it’s becoming in terms of employment.
