Elementary Science is Just Not the Same
Fifth grader Zachary Musser proudly displays one of the robots made by the GAC Robotics team for competition.
November 23, 2009 • Eric Stevenson, Junior
Filed under Features
A third grade teacher creates a new science program for two of his kids who are interested.
Four years and many calculations later, students ages nine to fourteen get to work hands-on and learn math, engineering, and computer programming in…Robotics.
In the past four years, Robotics has grown rapidly with fourth graders and fifth graders who have offered Robotics as a science elective. Second and third graders will soon be incorporating it into their science classes as well.
In elementary, Robotics is king!
“Whenever students miss Robotics they are disappointed. (Mr. Baker laughs) Rarely have I seen a student sad about missing class,” adds Mitchell Baker, the faculty sponsor for the elementary Robotics teams.
The competition Robotics teams go to a series of tournaments held every year that lead from region, to state, and ultimately to the international which ironically will be held in Georgia this year.
The teams build Lego robots to perform “missions” or tasks that are related to the year’s theme. This year the theme is transportation. The robot must complete the missions in a time limit of two minutes and thirty seconds.
“The response to Robotics has been overwhelmingly positive” says Baker , “Our next step is to get Robotics into the junior high, where kids can take it as an elective and meet during class and not just outside of school for an extra curricular.”
There is no doubt that Robotics will keep expanding. Because students must complete a research project and participate in an interview about why they built the robot the way they did, no one can second guess the educational purposes of Robotics. “Robotics helps us to think outside the box backwards,” says standout student Zachary Musser. Notwithstanding all the learning, the students know one thing, school can be fun.
The GACS Robotics Team has its first competition on December 5, the Gwinnett Open Qualifier at Georgia Environmental & Heritage Center. Come out and give them your support!
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