Chris Odom
Science and Math Departments
Joined George School in 2002
“Before coming to George School, I taught at both the high school and university levels. I liked the energy of the high school students and the sophistication of the university students. But at George School, I lucked out. Here students are mature and 'collegiate,' but they’re also motivated, excited, and wide-eyed. It’s the best of both worlds.”
How does your robotics class provide an unusual teaching experience?
Robotics is a student-directed course. Using a textbook that I developed with my first robotics classes, students complete core requirements at their own pace and then can work on anything that interests them in robotics. They’re only limited by their imaginations.
We’ve had students build soccer-playing robots. One girl programmed a facial-expression robot to interact with a child with autism. This year some students are working on a robot dance, a collaboration between robots and human dance students to be performed at Dance Eclectic.
Every year we compete in firefighting competitions: a local one at Penn State, where we typically win first place, and an international one in Hartford, Connecticut. Teams of students design and build robots to autonomously navigate a maze, find and locate a flame, and extinguish it. For the last three years, we’ve had the highest-ranked team from the United States in our division. We even beat MIT in the robot-walking competition a couple of years ago. We often win about $1,000 in prize money, and every year the students decide to put it back into the program, so their friends who take the course the following year can work with fancier robots and different challenges.
More about Chris:
With a BS from Millsaps College and an MS from Clemson University, Chris formerly worked as a rocket scientist for NASA. He coaches developmental softball, mentors the outdoor and computer clubs, and enjoys spending time outdoors—canoeing, hiking, and backpacking—with his wife Kathleen O'Neal (also a George School teacher) and two children. During his sabbatical in 2012, he plans to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.