Monessen students to form BOTS IQ team

By TAYLOR BROWN
tbrown@yourmvi.com

Monessen students are forming their first BOTS IQ team.
The manufacturing workforce development program helps high school students learn the ins and outs of manufacturing through building – and fighting – robots against each other in a battle-bot competition.
Several school districts throughout the Mon Valley participate in BOTS IQ each year, but until Matt Strine was hired as a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), instructor earlier this year, Monessen did not have its own team.
Within two weeks of taking the job in January, Strine started working diligently to make sure his students have hands-on opportunities in and outside of the classroom.
Using an online funding program, Donors Choose, he created a request online to purchase a 3D printer.
Less than a month later, it was delivered and sitting inside of his classroom.
By February, his students began learning about the equipment, but did not get too far into the lesson when COVID-19 hit and schools shut down.
While students were learning from home, Strine continued to expand his idea to enhance his curriculum for students.
Before the school year ended in June, he had placed another request for three additional 3D printers and the filament they use to make various objects.
From home, students used Google Sketch to create various designs and Strine printed them from the 3D printers, currently housed in a soon-to-be Makers Space in the basement of the high school.
Strine teaches three middle school classes — two introductory robotics courses and one technical education course — and two advanced robotics classes for high school students, in addition to computer programming.

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