Why You Should Join a Robotics Club

A robotics club is usually a school club dedicated to building robots to compete in competitions. There are so many benefits to joining one, from learning and sharpening your various skills to exploring a potential career choice.

The Vex Robotics 2024-2025 Hero Bot, Axel (Image Credit: Vex Robotics)

Of course, the first benefit you would think of is gaining mechanical engineering and coding experience. This is definitely a very beneficial tool to have in the future. When I first joined my school's robotics club, I had no idea what each piece and component was called, but at this point, I have pretty much memorized every piece just from working with each of them so much. Coding wise, since my club was in the middle school division, we didn't have to code anything and just had to wire the components correctly. I'm pretty sure high school robotics clubs will require coding though.

Image Credit: Antonio Janeski

Even if you're not interested in robotics or engineering, there are many basic skills you can learn from being part of a Robotics Club. Time management, teamwork, communication, and leadership are all vital expertise needed to successfully build a robot and compete in a competition.

For example, so far this year I have learned tons of those "soft skills". I have been a leader by helping everyone stay on task, assigning jobs, and helping out those that are struggling. I have been able to learn to balance joking around with seriousness when communicating with my teammates, which is crucial to keep morale and productivity up. Time management has been a bit of an issue for me, but I am definitely learning week by week how to do better. One of the things that has really been a big takeaway for me is learning to step down. A lot of the time I like to be in charge and take over, but I have learned to let others participate and share their ideas.

Since there is so much you can learn and enjoy in a robotics club, there is no point in not joining one!