Academics
Robotics
-
-
Robotics Banner
-
We are preparing students for future education and careers in STEAM through the real-world application of Robotics.
Middle School Robotics Program
St. Gabriel’s Catholic School is committed to innovative learning, including a strong Robotics program. Students are challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format. Students begin implementing coding in robotics starting in the lower school, to build creativity, computational thinking, and risk taking. That foundational knowledge extends to high-level robotics in 7th and 8th grade. Further, when students reach the high school level, they compete on the St. Michael's Catholic Academy LightSaders team.
This program is about much more than building robots. Guided by adult coaches and mentors, students develop STEAM skills and practice engineering principles, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and working as a team.
Students participate in FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science & Technology) Robotics Tech Challenges, in which teams of up to 15 members compete in a specific challenge, typically with high school teams across grades 7-12. Students apply to participate in the Robotics program.
The St. Gabriel’s Catholic School’s award-winning robotics team competes throughout the year locally, nationally, and globally.
Admissions Quick Links
Team History & Competitions
Our FIRST team has been a part of the school since 2003 and began as a First Lego League team, which ran for 12 years.
The team won several awards at top-level tournaments including the FLL World Championships, FLL US Open, FLL North American Championship, Texas State Championship, and Central Texas Regional Championships. In 2014, St. Gabriel’s joined the FIRST Tech Challenge division (mainly high school teams, grades 7-12).
We have earned recognition in design, coding, and problem solving at various levels including the local Austin Metro League Championships, Texas Cup Championship, Regional Championships, and TAPPS State Championships.
In 2018, the team placed 10th at the World Championships in Houston, TX and 2nd at the coveted Maryland Tech Invitational held at Johns Hopkins University. Last season we won the Innovation Award at the TAPPS State Championship and placed 2nd overall in the tournament. We also earned 2nd in our division at the premier of the Texas Cup at the Alamodome in 2021.
The team is made up of 7th & 8th graders and requires a full year commitment. We work after school and on the weekends preparing for events. The season kicks off in September and the first events usually begin in November and run through February. We have qualified for post-season events every year since the inception of our program.
Lower School Robotics
St. Gabriel’s Catholic School is committed to providing a rich, innovative learning environment for each student. Part of this robust educational experience includes measures where students can practice computational thinking, risk taking, and collaborative problem solving. These skills are essential for learning, especially in regard to mathematics. With this concept in mind, each student begins applying these skills in their math curriculum, starting in Pre-K, through coding and robotics.
Utilizing developmentally-appropriate, innovative pedagogy, our students exercise creativity in coding starting in Pre-K 4, that serves as application of their grade-level mathematical concepts. These skills are advanced each year as they progress through math, coupled with coding.
Starting in 2nd grade, our students apply their computational thinking, risk-taking, and collaborative problem solving as they begin elementary-level programming of robotics, which moves into a competitive robotics program in grades 3-6 with the Wonder League Robotics Competition, a global competition using the Dash robot.
The measures not only apply future-ready skills but also create global learning opportunities for collaboration and design thinking for all St. Gabriel’s students.
St. Gabriel's Catholic School
St. Gabriel's Catholic School is an Independent Catholic school in Austin TX, educating children in preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school.
© St. Gabriel's Catholic School