Daily Archives: June 16, 2017

Gears were turning at Northeastern State University's Bagley Hall Thursday, as local students worked on their projects during NSU's RACE Summer Academies.

There were several academies for kids to choose from, including a robotics academy and a Rube Goldberg academy.

Kids ages 4-5 participated in a robots course, wherein they explored popular robot movies and books, while learning how to make their own robots from household items. Thursday, the students built an "art robot" out of a plastic cup, clothespins, markers and a tiny motor.

"They were very excited for this," said Karissa Pierson, junior at NSU. "They were asking all week, when are we going to make the robot that moves? When are we going to make the art robot?"

Pierson said they'll cap off the week by letting the kids make costumes to become robots themselves.

Just down the hall from the robotics academy, 8-year-olds were building Rube Goldberg machines. After starting off with a game of Mousetrap, the students quickly began constructing their own contraptions, including roller coasters and machines made from Rube Goldberg kits.

According to Laura Myers, Grand View Middle School science teacher, the Goldberg students were ahead of the curve when it came to building their machines.

"They're doing some of my sixth-grade lessons for potential energy," she said. "I have yet to see a roller coaster built like this, and I've taught two years to sixth-graders and these are third- and fourth-graders. It's interesting, because I feel like sometimes we stifle that creativity. So, the third- and fourth-graders have surprised me a little bit with how much more they'll be like, 'Oh, we could do this, we could do that.'"

The RACE academies aren't just for parents looking for ways to keep their kids occupied during the summer. They're for educational purposes, as well.

"Kids, when they leave [school] for the summer, they kind of forget everything," said Barbara Fuller, director of Robotics Academy of Critical Engagement. "So we like to do these, because it gives them another month to kind of enhance what they just came out of school doing."

Volunteers aren't teaching the kids at NSU's camps; teachers are doing that. Fuller said STEM is very specific about whom it hires, so they not only have the background in the subjects that they're teaching, but they also know how to control a classroom.

"We want the kids to come in and know they have an experienced teacher," she said. "We have a lot of children who are on the spectrum, so our teachers understand that and they can adapt the lessons very easily for them."

The camps have become particularly popular among the students enrolled, as well as the teachers.

Savanna Weis came from Florida to help out with the RACE academies.

"I enjoy coming back and working, because I helped start this program when it was just in its infancy," said Weis. "We started with four girls. Now we have our competition team, our students resources and our summer academies for the youth. I really enjoy seeing the ways that our program is growing."

Fuller said she hopes to soon offer RACE Academies during the regular school year.

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Youngsters go high-tech at robotics academy - Tahlequah Daily Press

Knob Noster Robots delivered candy to people walking past the Knob Noster High School Stealth Panther Robotics team booth at the city fair.

The group built and entered robots in the national First Robotics Competition, which began with a January challenge to teams to create a certain type of robot, student Joey Baker, 15, said.

We have to make a robot that will play a game, Baker said.

The team built a robot with a delivery system, he said. He demonstrated at the fair with one robot that carried one piece of candy and another that threw Tootsie-Rolls to people.

Fuel we collected off the floor with our amazing motor. (The fuel) goes into our hopper, which will get spun around into our shooter, and that will shoot it into the boiler, Baker said.

Fuel consisted of Wiffle Balls.

Knob Noster finished 20th out of 68 teams in the World Championships in St. Louis, with no divisional breakdowns for schools of different sizes. Before going there, the team went north for the 10,000 Lakes Regional Robotics Competition in Minneapolis, winning the Rookie All-Star award, the highest award for a first-year team.

We were able to compete with veteran teams that were 10 times bigger than us, as rookies, so I feel really good about the future of the program. My dozen kids from here go up against 50-member teams, Stealth Panther Robotics head coach Chris Adams, a technology and engineering education teacher, said.

Competing well nationally is a tribute to the students and the teams sponsors, Adams said. Sponsors include Northrup Grumman, which built the B-2 bombers stationed nearby at Whiteman Air Force Base. He said volunteers who put in hundreds and hundreds of hours individually this year are a critical element in the teams success.

Our team put in 8,000 hours building these two robots, Adams said.

The Stealth Panthers look forward to 2018 competition, he said.

Were going hot and heavy back in next year, Adams said.

What worked last year may not work next year, Baker said.

We get a new game every year, he said.

Other than the motors and gear boxes, you cant fabricate anything in advance, Adams said. Its a worldwide reveal and theres thousands of schools nationwide that will all reveal on the same day.

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Robots deliver candy - The Daily Star-Journal

Maine elementary school students from Edmunds, Sedgwick, and Winthrop broke standing records in Maine Robotics events at the organizations spring track meets.

These regional events are the culmination of weeks or months of preparation by teams of children who have engineered and programmed robots to compete against each other. Examples of events are: fastest robot, strongest robot, clearing objects from a table, delivering an object to a target, shooting ping pong balls into a box, and speed building a robot.

This year, statewide records were broken by five students. At the Ellsworth event, Paige Bell of Edmunds broke her own speed build record with a new time of 1:56. Her new record was then immediately broken by Inez Furth, also of Edmunds, who built her robot in 1:54. Also at the Ellsworth event, Ira Bucholtz of Sedgwick broke his own record in the ping pong shot put event, delivering an amazing 149 ping pong balls (363 points) into the target in just 30seconds.

Chris Searles and Jadee Garcia from Winthrop Middle School broke the record for the strongest bridge event. While weighing only 875 grams, their structure suspended 85 pounds.

Held each May in Oakland, South Portland, and Ellsworth, the three competitive events were attended by 460 Maine children representing 60 teams and accompanied by 90 adult coaches. Teams from Saco to Houlton attended to test their skills against those of their peers. Leading up to the events, teams worked on their robots in schools, in after-school programs, and through community organizations.

Along the way, they have learned valuable skills in the areas of engineering, computer programming, and more.

We dont teach robotics because we love robotics, said Thomas Bickford, Maine Robotics executive director, in a press release. Its never been just about robotics. Its about teamwork, communication, and the importance of trial and error. Every participant at these track meets has had the experience of their robot failing miserably over and over before they figured out how to make it work right and achieve the goal. Thats the value.

Track meets have experienced a 30percent increase in participation in just two years, filling this Mays events to capacity. Maine Robotics is seeking funding to add two more track meets to the spring slate of offerings for 2018 so that more children can participate.

For information about track meets, summer camps, fall programming, or other offerings, visit: http://www.mainerobotics.org .

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Three state records broken at Maine Robotics spring track meets - Bangor Daily News

After last weeks Kids in the Kitchen, Ally Berggren brings kids another week of fun with WNCC and ICE Enrichments Robotics Week.

Kids, in first through seventh grade, get the chance to go "nuts and bolts" for the world of robotics during Berggrens four-day camp.

On the first day of camp, the children got to create their own robot posters and create their own designs.

Young camper, Alison Miller said, My favorite thing about camp was definitely making my poster.

As the camp progressed, the kids got the chance to learn how to build levers, pulleys and machines. Those robotics basics paved the way for the campers to build drawbridges, carnival rides and planes out of robotics kits.

Weve just been getting familiar with the (robotics) kits and it has evolved into building actual robots, Berggren said.

The third day of camp, the campers got in teams of two built their own robots and created a user guide for it. The teams then switched robots and tried to assemble the other teams robot by following the user guide they created.

While Berggren has put on other camps in the past, this is the first year for the robotics camp.

Since it is the first year, we have to play things by ear, Berggren said.

The activities for day four of the camp were dependent on how the beginning of the week went.

Berggren said there were some difficulties with having such a large age range with different learning levels, but she said the kids usually group together to help each other out.

In its first year, the camp seems to be a success and the kids seem to love it.

Its really fun, Kaylee Kinnan said, while Alison Miller chimed in. And its difficult all at the same time.

WNCC and ICE Enrichment will be putting on kids camps throughout the whole summer.

Link:

Kids learn robotics during week-long camp - Scottsbluff Star Herald