Robotics Expanding Within Wawasee Schools
SYRACUSE — Depending on one’s age, hearing the word “robot” could evoke memories of the evil machine gone terribly awry in a science fiction movie. But times do change and today robots are more often thought of in terms of something programmed to accomplish a certain task.
The term “robotics” is being circulated more frequently locally, particularly within Wawasee Community Schools. The program has expanded significantly within the last couple of years and will continue to grow, noted Kim Nguyen, director of the Wawasee Area Career and Technical Cooperative.
Robotics began in the Wawasee district just a few years ago as only a summer camp taught by Ryan Edgar, Wawasee Middle School teacher. But it has since grown fast and expanded to after school clubs at Wawasee High School and both middle schools, robotics and automation classes at both middle schools and the high school and some principles of robotics being incorporated into a digital electronics class taught by Allen Coblentz at the high school.
Nguyen also noted it is taught in grades three through five in the elementary schools. Edgar has been teaching at North Webster Elementary and will eventually go to Syracuse Elementary. Kim McCreary teaches the Milford Elementary students, as well as Milford Middle School. Students in elementary grades have been learning programming and coding related to robotics at website code.org, he added.
Robots are created from various parts and have main structures and are operated by computers within.
What is driving the increasing emphasis on robotics are the trends going on in the world outside the walls of school buildings. “A lot of robotics is going on in manufacturing these days,” Nguyen commented. “They are leaning more toward machines doing the work.” Robots don’t complain, they never get tired and always show up for work.
More specifically locally, Polywood is one example of a company utilizing robots and they do welding work, Nguyen noted.
But someone is needed to maintain the computer programs and do the coding. “There are circuit boards in every electronic device,” he said. “Someone has to do the coding also.”
In robotics, students learn how the inside components work. “We educate kids on all the pieces,” Nguyen said, by utilizing a career pathway.
Math skills, critical thinking skills and problem solving and creativity are also involved in robotics. “You need to be detailed, you have to be precise with directions” he said, talking about programming the computer for a robot. For example, most people don’t pause to consider how many steps they take to go from one place to the next, but with a robot each step and movement must be programmed.
Students also learn from their mistakes through trial and error. If something doesn’t work, they reevaluate and try it again.
Robotics also fits in well with the increasing emphasis being placed on project based learning. “They do a lot of hands-on activities,” Nguyen said.
He admitted due to how fast technology changes, the program is already behind. “We have tons of room to grow,” he emphasized. “We want to expand the program and start teaching higher levels of it. We need to beef up the computer programming side.”
It will take time, but eventually today’s elementary students choosing this career pathway should have a solid background by the time they reach high school.