How to Start a High School Robot Club on No Budget

AndyOrbit asks, “Hi. I’m a high school teacher with a few students interested in Robotics. Anyone have some advice on how to get a proper Robotics club started with virtually no funds? ”

Hello! Great question.

Perhaps your new robotics club isn’t just a robotics club – it’s a young business people’s club disguised as a robot club.

I started a business making robots because I needed a way for my robots to pay for themselves. Building a robot is very very similar to building a company. Each begins with a plan, is built by humans, and eventually should become mostly self-sustaining. It gives feedback, it reacts, and is very much like a living thing. The successful ones generate an energy surplus that they use to grow.

So how does this apply to your club? The young people need to find an opportunity where an achievable robot would fill a need for a price below what people are willing to pay and above the cost of the machine. Then it’s “how many can the club make?” That leads into all kinds of adventures in design for manufacturing, mass production, outsourcing, and probably butting heads with the school board over who owns the rights and the profits – all valuable educations that won’t come from FIRST or VEX.

Also, I made this poster for young people to start learning about robotics. I hope it helps.