Robotics
Robotics
Our Program
Our Robotics program challenges you like nothing else. It’s an academic team experience rivaling the intensity and camaraderie of athletics but with hands-on, real-world problem-solving skills.
Our program is much more than bolts and lines of code. You learn what it takes to break down a problem, innovate solutions, persist and collaborate. And you build skills that prepare you for top engineering colleges and open doors for careers in engineering, math, and computer science.
Upper School
Competing in the highly competitive FIRST FRC division, as a member of the Lumberjacks robotics team you can design, build, and test robots and then go on to compete regionally, nationally and internationally. Working in a state-of-the-art, spacious Robotics lab, the Lumberjacks are aided by faculty experts and experienced alumni mentors to create competition-dominating robots. The result is that upper school robotics team has participated in 5 world championships, been ranked as high as 4th in the world and over 100 team members have gone on to attend top engineering colleges.
Middle School
In middle school, you can join one of two teams that compete at the FIRST Lego League level. You will meet after school in your well-equipped robotics lab to prepare for competitions such as RoboQuake on Lake. Members of the upper school robotics team will serve as your mentors. And you may further the bond by attending upper school competitions to cheer on the older Lumberjacks.
Lower School
Discover your interest in robotics in first grade through a program for all students that includes participation in Hour of Code events and introductions to LEGO NXT robotics. In fourth grade step up to the Robotics Club, where you will join fifth graders in your own dedicated robotics lab to build a robot for competition. Students in grades three through five also participate in RoboQuake on Lake, a BL-hosted division qualifier, as well as other local competitions.
Custom Class: landing-panel infographics
UPPER SCHOOL ROBOTICS: BUILDING, PROBLEM-SOLVING, COLLABORATING
"I started Robotics in 7th grade and quickly fell in love with it. By 8th grade, I knew that I wanted to do engineering in college. In BL Robotics, you have all kinds of people learning how to work together, because that’s how the real world is. Robotics brought us closer. I now mentor the BL team. I would not be where I am without the mentors’ leadership and knowledge, so I want to give back."
Ryan Trupia '17, Virginia Tech '21
