Westover Robotics Prepares to Compete in RECF 2026–2027 Season
Westover’s Robotics Program, now offered as a fall afternoon activity, is growing and contributing greatly to student confidence, creativity, and sense of belonging. This year, students in robotics are preparing for Westover School’s inaugural season with Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF) through our Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) program.
They will enter the competition in two teams, the Wire Cats and Cyber Cats, and participate in three competitions. Their preparation brings together computer science, engineering design, strategic thinking, and collaboration.
“As WISE Director, I am proud to see this program take shape through our students’ curiosity and commitment to one another,” said Ashley Bonet. “Our inaugural season is an opportunity to build technical skills, lasting relationships, and the confidence to take on unfamiliar challenges.”
Coding with Purpose
Students are coding in Python, connecting their programming decisions to how a robot moves and performs. Testing their code gives them opportunities to troubleshoot, refine their thinking, and see how a change in instructions can affect performance.
Turning Rules Into Strategy
Reading the game manual is an essential part of the engineering work. Students are interpreting rules, identifying scoring opportunities, and developing strategies for both alliance matches and individual skills challenges. They are considering how to coordinate with another team, prioritize actions, and make the most of their robot’s capabilities.
Modeling, Testing, and Revising
Using Onshape, students are creating virtual 3D models to develop and communicate their ideas. Modeling helps them think through how parts fit together, explore possible designs, and make decisions that connect their ideas to a working robot.
Making the Learning Process Visible
Their engineering design notebooks document the thinking behind each decision: asking questions, developing models, collecting data, testing ideas, learning through trial and error, and revising solutions. Each iteration gives students evidence to guide their next step as they work toward scoring more points. The notebook captures how their understanding grows along the way.
Building Sisterhood, Community, and Belonging
This is the most meaningful part of our growing program. Students are learning to trust one another, share ideas, navigate setbacks, and celebrate progress together. They are building a community where their questions matter, their contributions are valued, and they can see themselves as engineers, programmers, and leaders.
As they prepare to enter the wider robotics community, the Wire Cats and Cyber Cats are also discovering how their teams can contribute to something beyond Westover: a shared space for collaboration, learning, and connection through STEM.
Be Boldly You
Westover School admits students of any race, color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin, or disability to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. As a gender-diverse girls school, Westover welcomes applicants and students who are assigned female at birth and/or identify as girls. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law in the administration of its educational policies, admissions and financial aid policies, and athletic or other school-administered programs.