|
Monday, 1/10/2000
(Jacob Selmer, Heather Schulke, Mike Chen, and Carol French)
We, the Herndon HS Outreach team, made a journey out to Willow Springs Elementary School in
Fairfax where a group of students in the SACC (School-Aged Child Care) program awaited us.
After a bit of setting up, we were off, explaining about the FIRST robotics competition and
what made it so interesting. Jacob talked about engineering and stressed how everything that
he had learned in school up to that point had come in handy designing and building these robots.
We then launched into an introduction of last year's game, showing them the floppies and describing
how the robotics team had built a robot that could perform the tasks needed of it. After spending
a few minutes doing that, we began talking about this year's team. Preparation was one of the
keys we stressed, and that led to our next point of interest. How exactly did the robotics team
prepare for the Game? Simple, we designed a game of our own.
Now things began to become more interesting. Jacob described how the robotics team was divided
into smaller groups of people who would work together to design, then later build, robots that
would compete with each other. The objectives? Build a robot that could fit through a standard
doorway, maneuver around random objects strewn in a hallway, and pick up an aluminum can - all
while carrying a cinder block. We asked the kids what they would do and, at first, they answered
with the standard ideas: a robot with an arm or a claw. Heather pointed out that there weren't
any bad ideas and one of the best ways to brainstorm was to go out on a limb by giving all ideas
a chance. The kids took it from there. Soon the more creative ideas came rolling out; ones such
as a giant magnet, or a javelin attached to a string so that the robot wouldn't have to move to
the can - instead the can would come to it.
 
It was then that Heather rolled out her group's solution to the problems posed. Mike pointed
to the row of screws on the front that could spear the can quite easily, mentioning that most
designs that worked well were simple. Often just design what is needed, don't go overboard and
there is less of a chance that something will go wrong. As a demonstration, she rammed the robot
against a plastic Sprite can, pinning it against the wall and securely affixing it to the front
screws. The kids really enjoyed seeing robotics at work.
Finally, we ended by describing this year's game and our hopes for successfully building a
robot to meet the challenge. Then, after saying goodbye to the kids, we packed up and went on
our way. In all it seemed like a successful adventure. Later, we received this e-mail from
Andrew Doan, one of the adults working with the kids of the SACC program:
Thank You Thank You Thank you again!!!
Yes, our kids loved the demonstration. In fact, they want to try to
start a "robotics" club. They even understand (or at least they say they
understand) when I tell them that we probably wont have moving robots, just
nonfunctional robots. They still want to try it. And our sixth graders want
me to find out who they will want to talk to about joining a robotics club
when they get to high school.
So, you guys rocked the world for us!!!
Thank you again!
Andrew and the Willow Springs SACC program.
|
