About five and a half years ago, the Robotics club was bestowed down onto the one and only, Robert Svitilla. Mr. Svit (as many students call him) is one of the physics and math teachers here at Saucon Valley, and for some time now has been the advisor or “president” of the Robotics club, a club focused and founded on the creation and development of robots and machinery.
“I think the Robotics club is kind of interesting, I mean, I’ve never really thought of joining it,” said junior Winnie Chen.
From a fellow Robotics student, Robotics is the kind of club where a broad range of students with varied interests outside of just the building of them, people who like to code, design, build, and compete, can all find a place in the Robotics club.
“I think Mr. Svit is interesting, unlike anyone I’ve ever met before,” said junior Madison Mingora.
Svit’s robotics club gives an insight and “introductory course” into the world of robotics. Students in this club get to better understand what it really means to put in the effort of building and making a moving and programmable robot.
“Building those robots does take a good amount of time. I’m not gonna lie,” continued Chen.
Along with teaching students a valuable lesson of the engineering of robots, it also teaches students patience and that things take time to make. For the average robotics team, it takes them about 6-12 weeks to build their robots, give or take how many hours a day they spend making them.
Robotics is known as such a fun club, but how did it come to be with Mr. Svit?
“I was promised the needed resources to get the program off the ground. I agreed to give it a go,” said Svitilla.
This marked the start of Mr. Svit’s journey into being club advisor for the Robotics club. A student that attended Saucon several years ago, who is now working on her PhD at Cornell, started a high school STEM club and had attempted to form a robotics team. The student was able to secure a grant, but the resources needed to make a robot and enter it into a competition were not available.
A couple years later, a few other students with their parents started a robotics program in the Middle School, using the SeaPerch program. As those students came up to the high school, they went to the school administration to help start a robotics program up here in the high school. That is when the principal approached Mr. Svit about being club advisor.
Mr. Svit is still club president and advisor to this day, and the club has only grown in popularity.
