What a difference a season has made for the Port Townsend Robotics team.

Team captain and president Max Morningstar is entering his senior year of high school this fall, and as community members stopped by the Cotton Building in downtown Port Townsend Sept. 5 to check out the “Roboctopi” team's last two seasons' worth of competition robots, Morningstar reflected on how he's seen his team grow over the past year.

“I'll be graduating at the end of this school year, so this is my last chance to compete at the state and world championship levels,” said Morningstar, noting that his team made it to two district competitions this past season. “I think we'll be successful this coming season, because our team is a lot more seasoned now. Even just between those first and second district competitions, there was a dramatic difference in our performance.”

Morningstar, who's been a member of the team for all four years he's been attending high school, was one of only four returning team members at the start of this past season.

All of the other team members were new; in fact, Max's younger sister, Olivia Morningstar, who's now entering ninth grade, counted as a relatively seasoned newbie, because she'd attended FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competitions with her family in previous years.

“Those team members aren't rookies any longer,” Max Morningstar said. “They know what the experience of a robotics competition is like.”

Gage Barry is also starting ninth grade this year, but he was an eighth-grader during his first season as a member of the Roboctopi, and he agreed with Morningstar on the practical importance of simply going through the procedures of how to use tools, organize a workshop and build a robot.

“I feel like I know now how everything should be set up, and where things should be going,” Barry said. “If it's out of place, I can spot it, and if it's missing, I know where to get it. Before I joined the Robotics team, I didn't even know how to use a pneumatic system.”

Morningstar believes he has not only learned the nuances of robotics better from teaching them to others, but also credits the process with teaching him how to teach his teammates to become better teachers themselves.

“You learn from teaching others,” Morningstar said. “We didn't have a lot of rookie retention when I came in, so I've tried to make sure new members stayed with the team. Rather than just telling people to do things, I explain to them how and why to do them. We can use our strengths to win by going around to each team member and saying, okay, what can you do?”

Chance Kane is heading into his sophomore year at Olympic College in Bremerton, but he still comes back to the Roboctopi, which he was a member of for all four years of his high school career, to mentor the next generation of Port Townsend Robotics competitors.

“I really believe in the culture of it,” Kane said. “It reinforces a love of science, technology and logical thinking, to counter the rise of anti-intellectual thinking in our current culture. What you learn in robotics is applicable to real-life problem-solving, and teaches you how to be the sort of team player who will be a valuable member of the work force and society.”

Kane shares his own experiences as a student robotics competitor with the current crop of team members, so they can learn from his missteps without repeating them.

“Robotics is less about building robotics than about building healthy, constructive individuals,” Kane said. “From what you learn and experience, you grow into a new person. After four years of robotics, I'm majoring in electrical engineering. It's an investment in our future, because it's an investment in our kids.”