Yet again, I've waited way too long to post, so I apologize for that! But this is a good post to catch up on; The 5th Annual Middle School Robotics
Every year, for one Saturday, Firestone High School ceases to be just a school building. Well, I mean, it's still a school building, but for that one Saturday, it becomes more than that. The gym is no longer just a room reserved for the basketball and volleyball teams . It's not just a place associated with physical activity and sports and pep rallies. It becomes a gathering place for students who share interests to come together and create something.
For one Saturday, it becomes an arena where the best minds win and a place where the only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask.
This one day, where high school students give up their Saturday to teach robotics to middle school students that give up their Saturday to learn. There aren't many schools that have well funded, open robotics programs, much less in middle school. Many students have very little, or no experience in robotics at all. But they all have on thing in common; an interest in learning about it.
The students of Project Lead the Way are recruited every year by Mr. Spak to run what has grown into a huge annual event at the high school, from setting up the gym early in the morning, to posing as team mentors, manning troubleshooting tables, passing out supplies, greeting teachers and parents, registering each student that comes to compete, commentating and refereeing matches, announcing results, running the projection screen, taking pictures, presenting awards and finally cleaning up after it all. With eight of Akron Public School's nine middle schools in attendance, running this event requires all hands on deck.
Students from Buchtel CLC, East CLC, Hyre CLC, Jennings CLC, Litchfield Middle School, Miller South School-VPA, NIHF STEM Middle School and Roswell Kent Middle School came pouring in early Saturday morning, were quickly registered and seated at their team's table. Upon sitting down, the were introduced to the Project Lead the Way student assigned to their group, to act as mentor and guide as they went about fulfilling the challenge.
Each team of 2-6 students received a box of parts, including things like wooden axles, different sized plastic wheels, rubber bands, three default direct drive motors, an assortment of gears, plastic tubing, plastic base plates, screws and nuts, and an adapter cord that would hook the motors up to our control boxes. Given a copy of the design process, paper to brainstorm and a schedule, they were off.
What are they building, might you ask? Robots. Robots to play a game of ping pong scoring. Given a time limit to brainstorm, a time limit to build, a time limit to test, and a quick break for lunch (provided for the entire tournament by our event sponsor, Papa John's Pizza) it was time to play. The bots had to be able to score ping pong balls in a goal, or intake them into a self-contained unit to gain points. The catch? Matches were only a couple minutes long.
Competing in a series of three game matches, the winner of two progressing, the students were thrown into a single-elimination tournament, dictated by pre-selected, randomly generated brackets. And the moment we've all been waiting for? Congratulations to Litchfield Middle School, for taking not only first, but second place!
We'd like to send out a big thank you to all the teachers, parents, students, volunteers and our sponsor, Papa John's Pizza; it takes a village to raise a robot, and we've found quite a fine one for us. We look forward to seeing you all next year, and congratulations to everyone who participated!
-Erica Kraus Club Secretary
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