Throughout the year the third floor has been filled with a class full of students engrossed in designing and driving robots after school.
On January 25th, 2025, South High had the pleasure of hosting their very own robotics competition: The South High Robotics Showdown—an annual event that began just last year. The event ran from 7 AM to 5 PM, and had 45 teams from all over the state (such as Boston, Milton, and Framingham) arriving to participate in the 2024-2025 VEX game High Stakes.
“We get a new game every year,” says Mr. Jones, advisor and coach for South’s Robotics club. “It’s the 2024-2025 VEX game designed by the Game Design Committee. They create the game and we get the game in May all the way until the competition season really kicks off.”
“We are designing, building, coding, testing, improving robots. We’re working on robots through all of that time. We then attend competitions just like the one we hosted and we attend competitions, we compete against other schools.” VEX Robotics is a program that allows teams of students from elementary to high school an opportunity to build and code their own robots to compete with schools across the globe in a specialized game.
Mr. Jones says, “One thing that sets Vex robotics apart from other robotics programs you might hear about or see is that Vex robotics is student-centered. What that means is that as a coach, I’m not allowed to build a robot, touch the student’s robots, I’m not allowed to code the robots, I’m not allowed to do anything with the robots. The most I can do is coach, provide advice. But this isn’t a basketball game where the coach is on the sidelines, telling everyone what to do. This is up to the students to run their own teams, to deal with all the nitty gritty of getting from point A to point B and make it actually happen. As a coach, I mostly just sit on the side and watch it happen. I mostly intervene when there’s something I need to intervene with or offer advice. It’s not about me doing things, it’s about students doing things themselves. “
One of the highlights of the season was the success at the Bancroft competitions, where South High teams stood out, demonstrating their ability to compete at a high level.
Mr. Jones, affectionately known as “Mr. Roboto,” reflected on the appeal of robotics and what makes it so special. “Robotics gives people an opportunity to solve problems and do things they didn’t think they could do,” he shared. “It takes something really challenging, like picking up a ring and putting it onto a stick without touching it, using a block of metal you created —and coded. And it takes all of that — something that you never thought you could [achieve] before.”
For those thinking about joining the robotics club, Mr. Jones offers a warm invitation: “I’d really just encourage them to jump in because it can be intimidating at first. But the secret that other people don’t know is that [robotics is] actually only half about STEM ; it’s about working with people and getting to work as part of a team in an effective way.”
One of the defining moments of this season was the South High Robotics Showdown, an event hosted for the second consecutive year. Held on January 25th, 2025, the competition brought together 45 teams from across the state to compete in the VEX High Stakes game. Mr. Jones explained the importance of hosting the event: “[We host this competition] because it provides a guaranteed chance to compete with all of our teams. Last year all of the competitions were full and there was nowhere for our teams to compete. As a coach, there is nothing worse for me than having a ton of amazing students who are here and ready to build a robot. Capable, able, committed, and then having no place to compete. Without that competition, there’s no payoff. For me that was horrible. So last year, I said, ‘Well, if there’re no competitions we can register for, I guess we have to host one ourselves” and that’s why we hosted one last year.’”
The South High Robotics Showdown also provided a chance for the community to recognize the talent and commitment of the robotics team. “We received compliments not only on the beauty of our building but also on how well our students treated the other competitors and how efficient the event was,” Mr. Jones said. “It’s a point of pride for us to show off our school and our students’ skills.”
The logistics of hosting such an event are no small feat, and Mr. Jones credits the efforts of many volunteers for making it a success. “We had so many volunteers from across South High come to help us with the competition. Students and teachers came and were the backbone of what we were doing. They were helping people get into the queue at the right time for matches, they were running the pit area, [there were so] many volunteers from South High. Huge thank you to all of the volunteers.”
The robotics program at South High continues to grow, not only through competitions but also through its classroom offerings. Mr. Jones encourages any student interested in robotics to take the class. “I really encourage people who are interested in robotics to take the class,” he said. “These classes are electives, they’re open to anybody to take. If you are interested in robotics, please sign up for the robotics class, we’d love to have you there.”
Reflecting on the season so far, Mr. Jones is incredibly proud of his students and their accomplishments. “My students do amazing things that I don’t think I can even do. I will say I believe in my students 100% and then somehow they find a way to make it 150%. Quite frankly I didn’t think that any of our teams were going to make it to eliminations at all. [It] turned out that a lot of our teams made it to eliminations. One of our teams won a Judges Award [and] one of our teams made it to the finals,” he said. “I’m proud of what my students accomplished and robotics is what keeps me going as a teacher. I love teaching and I love working with students every day but robotics brings the best out of students and that’s what I love to see.”
As the season progresses, the focus remains on teamwork, collaboration, and pushing the boundaries of what the robotics teams can achieve. “Robotics is more than just about building robots and writing code,” said Mr. Jones. “It’s about learning to work as a team, to solve complex problems together. That’s a skill that’s invaluable in the real world.”
One last piece of advice Mr. Jones offers, “The biggest thing I would say for people in Robotics is that you have to see through the whole STEM angle and know robotics for what it really is – a team sport. It’s a team sport with minimal adult supervision and what makes or breaks a robotics team is team cohesion and how the team works together and gets along. When your team is at its best, everyone is involved, everyone understands what’s going on and when your team is at its worst, one person has taken over and decided I’m just gonna do it all. Robotics is more than just putting screws into metal, more than just about writing code. Yeah, it’s about all those things but it’s also about team skills. That’s the real world. When I come into South High, I have my own classroom but the second I go out into the hallway, it’s one big community with all the other teachers. We have to work together.
And that’s just one example. People who work at Google do not get individual assignments that they complete on their own, they work in teams and those teams have to meet regularly and work together to complete complex tasks. We’ve taken trips to AMD a number of times and when we go to AMD, one of the things they tell us they’re looking for when I talk to the recruiters [is that] there [are] people who can work on a team. Robotics prepared you for that.”
Looking ahead, South High’s robotics program is set to prepare for its new season this May. The new game is even simpler compared to open to a wider array of students. With strong performances at regional events, and the continued dedication of its students and mentors, South High’s robotics program promises even greater achievements in the future.
