Teacher Shawn Kimbrough, is starting a new journey with the addition of a robotics class this year. 

The robotics program is a semester-long class that involves building circuits, coding, programming. Kimbrough hopes that this class will be a great opportunity for students to learn about the different aspects of computer science.

“I would like to build the robotics class a little bit more, it’s a huge part of our world,” Kimbrough said.

Many students like the addition of this class and hope that it has the potential to grow and give other students a better understanding of all facets of robotics.

“Robotics will give me a foundation for any future electrical or computer work I may do,” sophomore Benjamin Martens said.

Robotics is an essential part of life, and some people do not understand how much of an impact that it has on society. Computer science is a part of almost every aspect of our life, from our phones to our ovens. All of these things require some type of computer science. According to automation.com robotics job posting are up 500% with half of those job postings being for software engineers.

“You’re going to find very few jobs that aren’t touched by computer science, that aren’t touched by robotics or automation,” Kimbrough said.

Kimbrough has been a teacher at GlenOak for 21 years, but this class is different from other classes that he has taught before. Robotics is a more hands-on class, it is a different learning experience from classes he has taught before.

  “The science classes that I’ve been in, there were not as many opportunities to explore, to actually work with science, to actually do what science is which is experimentation. This (class) has, I would say, a large hands-on component, where you have to build the thing and actually see it work,” Kimbrough said.

With the booming job market in robotics and software engineering Kimbrough encourages students to give the class a try.

“Chance favors the prepared mind, you may not know that you’re going to end up having to deal with electronics or computer science or something like that,” Kimbrough said.