Local grants expand opportunities for Newton High School robotics team

Two sets of grants from different organizations in the community have given the Newton High School robotics team a new lab upgrade and new tools.

Derek Blair, industrial teach teacher and high school robotics coach, said the club received a $3,000 grant from the Jasper Community Foundation and a $78,000 grant from the Fred Maytag Family Foundation. The spoils of both of those grants were shared during school board meetings in August and September.

According to school documents, the Fred Maytag Family Foundation Grant paid for numerous hand tools, a label maker, tool carts, display boards, a Canon Camera, measuring tools and CAD computer for the Newbotics Club. The Jasper Community Foundation funds assisted with lab upgrades.

“We turned the robotics lab into more of a maker space where we can do some pretty cool stuff with our students,” Blair said. “This allows us to do a whole lot.”

Equipped with 3D printers, laser engravers, new monitors with think pads, a water jet cutter and a large format Epson printer, the Newtbotics Club and its capabilities are now greatly expanded. Students told school board members last month that these new tools will be beneficial this season and the years to come.

“We were able to buy some new PCs, which are for programming,” Blair said. “Also very important in the programming world or robotics world is getting the CAD. We teach CAD but there’s not always a whole lot of carry over between the kids in computer science with the kids in engineering and industrial tech.”

The CAD computer is now specifically for the robotics lab. The large format printer also lets students print off blueprints, and it also allowed them to print off their giant check to signify the grant from the Fred Maytag Family Foundation. Blair said the water jet cutter is also a massive upgrade to the lab.

“Its primary purpose is cutting metal parts so we can fabricate gusset plates and things like that which we couldn’t normally do,” Blair said. “We’re competing with the Des Moines metro schools and they have tons of corporations and whole lot of resources that allow them to collaborate a little bit more than we have here.”

Which makes the grants and support from the Jasper Community Foundation and the Fred Maytag Family Foundation all the more special.

“We can really compete on a level that’s comparable to some of those schools.”