Teaching kids failure and mentorship through robotics

WASHINGTON, D.C. (InvestigateTV) — A nonprofit is teaching students engineering skills by having them design, build, code and compete with robots.

Fourteen-year-old Helen Sullivan is preparing for her next robotics competition. She said she did not always know she wanted to be an engineer.

“I had no clue, I think this has given me a sense of direction in life. Now I have a path in mind and I’m not worried anymore,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan is one of hundreds of students learning to design, build, code and compete at Capitol City Robotics in Washington, D.C.

“We do do competitive science, we do do competitive robotics, but we’re much more than robotics. We’re also a leadership academy,” said Ryan Daza, founding executive director of Capitol City Robotics.

Daza launched the nonprofit in 2018, filling a gap he saw for kids in the nation’s capital.

“Robotics is a sport. So do they do go to competitions. We actually have one every single week,” Daza said. “We’re not here for awards. We’re here to create the next generation of scientists.”

Daza teaches them how to write in an engineering design journal, data science, and communication. “Every competition they enter, they’re interviewed.”

In the clubhouse, robots of all kinds are on display. Kids from pre-K through high school learn programming and problem solving. Anyone can join, with a focus on making sure underrepresented students have access.

According to Capitol City Robotics, 40% of students are female, 44% are students of color and 30% receive scholarships.

Eleven-year-old Bae Zakrajsek is working on her drone obstacle course.

“Ever since I’ve been here, I’ve been happier in my life, this one of my happy places,” Zakrajsek said.

Asked what robotics can teach kids, Daza said failure is part of the lesson.

“Robotics can teach one of the most important things you can teach a kid. And that is how to fail and how to fail. And how to fail, fail hard,” Daza said. “They fail all the time. And I try to treat it as data, to brush it off, get up, we got you, the failure is irrelevant, it’s info telling you not to walk there, and to try something else.”

Four teens are troubleshooting their robot as they prepare for the state championship. Older students mentor younger ones. Mateo Holmlund has been coming to Capitol City Robotics since he was 7.

“An iconic experience because its noisy around, lot of progress going around, you can get an experience of everything even if you’re working one thing,” Holmlund said.

Daza said watching students grow is what he gets out of running the organization.

“I get my students, watching them develop, watching them change, watching them learn, watching them become something they couldn’t become if Capitol City Robotics did not exist,” Daza said.

For Daza, the best part of teaching is “to watch these kids grow and become awesome.”