After building their first robot last year and being awarded for being a successful first-year team at the World Championships, Bearden’s robotics team is starting their second building season.

Since Jan. 9 and through Feb. 23, Team 5571 Ratchet will be busy planning and creating their second season robot. They have six full weeks to strategize, prototype, and create a robot ready for competition.

The team takes the first semester of the school year to teach their new members everything they need to know about robotics. Senior and team captain Aria Sajjad said that anyone can join the club, not just people who know about robotics.

“For any potential people who might be interested in robotics, I really want to stress and emphasize that you don’t need to have any previous knowledge to do this,” Sajjad said.

After the first semester ends and all the new members have been trained, the team begins the second semester prepared and ready to build.

The first two weeks are for brainstorming and planning for the robot and its design, and the last four weeks are designated for prototyping and building.

All 60 students are separated into committees and assigned days of the week. Each committee has a specific job and each person in the committee has a certain responsibility, whether it be the business side of the robot or the building side.

After the six-week brainstorming and building period, they will put their robot in a bag, and they won’t be able to see or modify it again until March 31.

At that point, the team will participate in a three-day competition at Thompson Boling Arena, where they will compete against teams from Tennessee and other surrounding states. In order to win, the robot has to beat out the rest of the teams by playing a game that changes annually. This year, the team does not know the specifics of the game yet.

If they win the first competition, they will be asked to attend the World Championships in St. Louis.

The team is especially excited for that last build day of the build season, when they can celebrate a rewarding second build season.