In a recent visit to a Robotics plant, President Obama spoke about the importance of this industry and about how we must provide our students with STEM education (integrated study of science, technology, math and engineering) in order to ensure that they will have a place in the economy of the future. In Mr. Locher’s eighth grade computer class students are getting hands on experience in robotics – and they are loving it!
VEX Robotics is a program specifically tailored to bring the magic of robotics competition into the classroom. Robotics is an engaging way to integrate all facets of STEM education into the classroom, and head-to-head competition is a natural way to capture students’ attention.
Mr. Locher likes that he can vary the level of complexity of the task that he can assign students. Eighth graders will be working on robotics for the full semester. This quarter they are building basic robots from a set of plans. They will learn about the different elements of gearing, speed vs. torque, and center of gravity. The quarter will end with a robot sumo wrestling competition which will test all these elements and be very fun!
In the fourth quarter eighth graders will get into the real VEX competition, which involves students programing their robots to accomplish specific tasks: lifting different sized objects and navigating a course. You can learn more about how the robotics platform works http://www.vexforum.com/wiki/index.php/Gateway
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