Future Ready Robotics Raises Existential Questions
What is a man, but an organic machine? A collection of sinewy tissue, tubes and vessels, and wiry neurons? A flesh and bone automaton piloted by a computer-like brain? These are the questions I asked myself this week, observing and chronicling Future Ready Robotics Camp at Jac-Cen-Del Elementary School, hosted by Genesis: Pathways to Success as a component of our A Summer of STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art, & Mathematics) initiative. In two stages, campers honed their skills with robotics, working in teams to program, build, and design a bot to compete with other teams in a series of challenges. As each team’s robot began to take shape, uniquely suited to picking up cubes, stacking tubes, and pushing plastic boxes, they started to exhibit qualities and features that reflected their creators. A firm and ambitious team built a similarly aggressive robot, and sets of creative and clever thinkers found new ways around old problems. Within myself, this likeness of maker to machine raised questions about the nature of robots. What are they but synthetic reflections of our own minds, a tangible representation of ourselves made manifest through rubber wheels, metal axel, and plastic tubing?
The camp was open to 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders from across Southeastern Indiana and was held in two stages - one geared toward those with previous robotics experience, and the other toward beginners. In total, the camp welcomed 28 budding engineers, programmers, and creatives during the week, who worked in teams to design and build robots to compete in challenges and show off the skills they had worked so hard to develop.
The two stages of the camp were held mostly synchronously, with Stage 2, the advanced stage, occurring Monday through Friday (June 12th - June 16th), and Stage 1, for robotics novices and the mechanically curious, taking place Wednesday through Friday (June 14th - June 16th). On Monday and Tuesday, Stage 2 attendees got to heighten their mechanical and programming skills by learning how to build and autonomously program robots designed to compete in formal robotics competitions. Subsequently, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Stage 2 attendees worked alongside Stage 1 attendees who learned the basics of robotics and worked in teams to compete in a series of competitions such as - the 2023-2024 VEX IQ Challenge: Full Volume, freeze tag games, and head-to-head battlebots! During these latter days, Stage 1 attendees gained a wealth of knowledge while applying their engineering and coding abilities, as Stage 2 attendees did the same while serving as mentors and leaders to the rest of their groups.
During the week, campers were given the opportunity to learn from high school students involved with robotics teams and other experienced volunteers. In service of building their own robots for competitions at the end of the stages, campers were taught, and subsequently applied, knowledge of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely), project management and organization, how to set up decision matrices for the purpose of testing and problem-solving, how to use and build prototypes, how to build drive-trains, how to identify and utilize different parts, and how to program robots to be operated both autonomously and with a controller. These skills are valuable not only in robotics but in projects of all kinds.
The camp even equipped students with the tools to cultivate useful practices and habits for life beyond the classroom, teaching goal organization, time management, problem-solving, and encouraging teamwork. Each camper had a notebook in which to track the development of their robots through different stages. While logging and tracking their work, they worked alongside team members to build their bots, in the process, utilizing each member’s unique skill set throughout each phase.
The camp culminated in a head-to-head competition where teams were able to test their mettle against other squads, as a way of demonstrating all they had learned. Genesis would like to thank Jac-Cen-Del Community Schools and all the volunteers from Batesville, Jac-Cen-Del, Milan, South Ripley, and St. Louis that made this camp happen!
Future Ready Robotics Camp will return in the summer 2024.
