LEGO Robotics Camp
A couple of weeks ago, Lucas and some buddies got a golden opportunity to study robotics with a young champion robot engineer. They basically built a LEGO Robotics Summer Camp for a handful of lucky fourth-grade Waldorf kids. Above is the robot that Lucas and his partner, R, built.
The boys got to use LEGO Mindstorms parts, complete with a programmable brain, light sensors, eyes, etc. Although Lucas is a champ at building with LEGO, this was different! This was pretty much his first experience working with a computer, apart from a 10-minute learning game once in a while.
The boys worked in teams, building three different robots of their own design. On the last day of camp, we gathered for a final challenge.
The robots had to follow a prescribed, programmed path, turn, advance to pick up a baton, turn again, and carry the baton and deposit it into a holding bin. Along the way, the robots were supposed to push a ball into the holding bin, too. This is a photo of Lucas and R’s robot on a trial.
This is a challenging task! Being off even a few degrees at one point in the path makes the robot wildly off course later on. During the challenge, the kids made lots of minute tweaks to the robots’ programs.
Several robots succeeded in completing the challenge at least once. Here’s their (blurry) moment of victory.
The taped table gave the robots’ sensors clues about where they were.
I think this six-afternoon camp was challenging in many ways, but also super cool. You can tell they had a great time, even though some afternoons were uncomfortably hot.
I think this is S’s robot, ready for a run. So great!
At they end they all got certificates of completion. Can you think of better way to motivate boys to learn than combining good friends, LEGO, computers, problem solving, and mentorship?
Don’t they look grand with their robots and coach Karl in the back? Little geniuses every one of them!
And goofy boys, too.
