High School Meets High Tech: Discover Battle Bots Day Brings Engineering to Life

Nothing beats hands-on experiences. Students learned how to build parts of a battle bot with soldering materials at AOMC. Photo by Holly Hamrick, BB2C Makerspace Assistant

Written By: Ann Cosner, Williamstown High School Intern

Think of the coolest opportunity you were able to do as a high school student. Now, throw that completely out of your mind. Appalachian Ohio Manufacturers’ Coalition (AOMC) and Building Bridges to Careers (BB2C) created a much cooler day. A day where students and teachers were introduced to something many people only see on TV: Battle Bots. 

This super cool day, deemed “Discover Battle Bots Day,” was held on Friday, January 23rd at the AOMC Training Center at Broughton’s Industrial Park in Marietta.

 It’s important to note that this entire event was planned by AOMC interns, some of whom have become full-time employees at AOMC, like Jaden Martin.

“Being able to set this event by ourselves provided a lot of experience in both organization and teaching. The stations are being taught by all interns, and all demonstrations will be done by AOMC interns as well,” Martin said. 

AOMC Technical Trainer, Jaden Martin, assists a student at the Soldering station.

Photo by Holly Hamrick, BB2C Makerspace Assistant

AOMC interns did, in fact, lead the day and kicked things off by discussing how a Bottle Bots competition operates and the basic rules behind creating, battling, and repairing robots.

Two robots were placed in a small arena by two of the AOMC interns, where they briefly battled against each other. Attendees had a front row seat to this mini-battle, an experience the AOMC interns hoped would inspire them to join the Battle Bots program.  

Photo by Holly Hamrick, BB2C Makerspace Assistant

Following the battle, attendees were given a brief tour of AOMC and shown the resources and opportunities interns have access to while working at the AOMC training center. The interns explained the purpose of each piece of machinery at AOMC and how they use these machines in their daily routines. 

Once the tour was finished, the students were split into five stations: Fusion & Design, 3D Printing and Materials, Electronics, Strategies, and Controllers. Each station explored a different process involved in creating a battle bot. 

Discover Battle Bot Day aimed to introduce students to a world many of them may never have had access to before- and it’s safe to say it did just that. Gone are the days when sports are the only extracurricular activity. Now, thanks to organizations like AOMC and BB2C, students have access to a wider variety of programs and internship opportunities that may just guide them down their perfect career path. For more information about AOMC and BB2C Discover Days, visit bb2careers.org.