The weekend of 10/18 was a rather busy one for the upper school robotics team, the Metal Moose. It served as an end to the past competition season, as well as an opportunity to create a new team culture as they prepare for the upcoming season in 2026. The team attended an offseason competition in Wissahickon, Pennsylvania, and also launched a new S.T.E.M. outreach program in partnership with the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester.
Every year, the robotics team is given a robot challenge/game during the first week of January. Each robot game includes a field with various scoring elements placed around it, and alliances of three robots each facing off in qualification, and playoff matches at competitions. Once the game is revealed in January, the team has around two months to strategize, prototype, build, program, and test a robot which will compete in March. These two months are very work heavy, as the team usually meets all seven days a week to work on the robot. The competition season in March is filled with fun competitions, awards, presentations, and iterations as the team strives to improve the robot after every competition. They typically compete in two district events which qualify them for the district championship, which serves as a qualifier for the world championship in late April. The world championship is no new experience for the Metal Moose who have qualified eight times in the last nine years!
Once the competition season culminates at the world championship, teams are given a break until September when offseason events begin. Offseason events, such as the one attended by the Metal Moose, are fun competitions with no stakes or qualifiers, made to enjoy that year’s robot game one more time as a community. On the weekend of 10/18, The Metal Moose attended Ramp Riot, a one-day offseason event hosted by the Wissahickon robotics team, Miss Daisy. The Metal Moose ended qualifications at eighth out of 30 teams, and captained the sixth alliance consisting of two other robotics teams – Sa-BOT-age from the Downingtown area, and Earthquakers, from Friends Central School. Although the team didn’t make it too far in the playoffs, the competition was fun, and a great way to close off the past year’s robot game.
The robotics team strives to do more than just building robots for competitions, as shown by the STEM impact program. Every year, the team organizes and dedicates time to creating opportunities for STEM learning in the community. Previously, such initiatives have included:
- Demonstrations at:
- West Chester girl scouts
- GameCon
- Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Convention
- Westtown open house
- Alumni Day
- Space Day
- STEM Camps such as:
- TechGirlz
- Camp Dreamcatcher
- Kendal retirement communities
- Mentoring of a new FLL team at the School in Rose Valley
Recently, The Metal Moose has formed a partnership with the American Helicopter Museum based in West Chester. They initially demonstrated their robot at the museum’s family day in July, allowing parents and children to drive the robot and learn about ways STEM can be accessible to them. After this successful initiative, the Moose returned once more in August to demonstrate and explain the robot to the museum’s summer camp. On October 19th, the Moose expanded their partnership with the museum with the launch of their Lego Robotics Camp, where students from ages 8 through 12 engage in Lego robotics as a gateway into the world of S.T.E.M. The initial camp was a great success, as the participants were very excited to build Lego robots and program them to perform various tasks with the help of the Westtown Metal Moose robotics team members.
