ISTE-Robotics

I just finished a session on robotics competitions for middle and high school students.  RSPS is interested in starting a robotics program this upcoming school year, and since yours truly has been offered the opportunity to organize it, I felt like attending this session would be a good idea.  The educational aspects of a robotics program are very easy to see.  It's a fun way for kids to design, build, and implement a robot concept to complete a task (all under time constraints similar to solving real-world engineering problems).  At the same time, kids are sort of forced to learn and understand mechanical and engineering concepts (as well as of course math).  They have to if they want to build a successful robot. 

There are various levels of robotics competitions that students can enter.  Junior and middle school students can enter what's called First LEGO League where students build a robot out of (you guessed it) LEGOs (!), and use that robot to complete certain tasks.  High school students enter FIRST Robotics Competitions where the robots are far more complex, the restrictions are tighter, and the tasks to perform are more difficult.  Despite the degree of difficulty, it was easy to see that the students who partook in the presentation were quite happy with what they had accomplished.  We saw two robots.  One robot specialized in placing inner tubes on coat racks, and another robot fired foam balls and picked them up too.  Both robots were especially designed to play in competitions that involved inner tube-coat rack hanging and foam ball throwing-collecting. 

An obvious challenge to starting a robotics program is the almighty dollar.  At the high school level, to enter one team with one robot into the FIRST Robotics national competition, it costs $5000!!!!!  And that's before adding in costs such as travel expenses to and from the site of the competition.  This particular school's budget for robotics was $50,000 (yipe!), and most of that came from sponsorships who either donated funds or materials.  A partnership is essential, and it's not too surprising that many companies big and small are far too willing to help.  The reasoning is that they are looking for returns on their investment in terms of manpower down the road.  Many science and engineering jobs are being outsourced overseas (especially to China).  American dominance in these fields is dwindling.  The only way to build it back up is to get kids excited about science.  Robotics competitions are an excellent way to get kids of all ages engaged and excited.  Now to just figure out the time and the money (of course...).