Joe asked to join the Robotics Club this year at school.
I'm not surprised that he has LOVED it.
He looks forward to it, asks about it and quite honestly would choose it over other
activities. In fact, he has been forced make that decision and we have had a lot of discussions
on commitments to groups this fall. It is encouraging that he loves involvement and loves a challenge, but we are also teaching him not to over commit.
He has learned a tremendous amount and thoroughly enjoyed it this fall!
I have also learned a lot starting at ground zero where robotics is concerned!
Team planning early on...they formed their team consisting of all 5th graders.
I thought this would put us at a disadvantage but they worked hard from early on!
Every week we had a team challenge in which the members had to work together to accomplish a goal. There were 3 LMS teams. Our instructor Mr. Woodward is full of enthusiasm and encourages the students.
In this challenge he opened the wood shop and the kids had 5 minutes to gather materials
that would transport the object back and forth across taped barriers without touching the floor.
Some teams built bridges from wood and other materials, but the little lions grabbed
and already built car and taped the item to it and drove it back and forth.
Pretty genius if you ask this mom!
Mr Woodard and a few retired engineer volunteers (bless them, they were brilliant) also taught them weekly about adapting the robots to remove human error, delayed start and grounding and bases to guide the robot - so tricks (I had no idea). Another mama and I helped our team with posters
and presentations while the engineers help them code the robot.
This all lead up to a practice competition at Bedford a few weeks ago. It was very neat to see the robots in actions and the other team dynamics.
Working hard to reprogram the robot with the right turns to complete the mission.
For fun, we let the little lions tye dye their own shirts.
They had a ton of fun with this!
Gearing up for competition a few weeks away!
