by Jane Bokun
Even though the Robotics Team, which is just months old, recently placed third out of 11 teams at the South Suburban First Tech Challenge Robotics Competition on Saturday, it was only the team’s second meet.
“We had just gotten our robot, and none of the kids had even programmed a robot before,” said District 215 Superintendent Dr. Creg E. Williams.
Many of the students at TF South were quick to join the robotics team to get real world engineering experience.
“It’s so much fun, but it’s hard at the same time,” said biology teacher and robotics coach Matt Jancich.
The TF South Robotics Team includes students Jacob Hollomon, Tia Nicholson-Bourn, Mikala Peden, and Rigoberto Gutierrez. The team meets each evening from 3:30 –7:00pm at the school, funded by the 21st Century Community Learning Center grant.
Jancich said the group had a lot of help from the First Tech and its First Robotics Challenge competing group. They also received aid and advice from the robotics club at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in the nearby vicinity.
TF South High School is located at 18500 Burnham Avenue in Lansing, Illinois.
