Archive: Around Town

Most of Lansing High School (LHS) is closed for construction this summer.  But last week the second-floor English wing was re-purposed for a week of robot camp.  Counselors were past and present LHS Robotics Team members who lead their middle-school-aged teams to the ultimate challenge Friday.

"I enjoy working with the kids because they have a different way of thinking than adults, or even teenagers," said Black Team Counselor Amanda Van.  "They always go the more creative route.  Sometimes not the most stable route, but it's always fun to see their creative thinking.  And they always go outside of the box."


What comes in the box are a Lego Mind Storm kits borrowed from Cornell University.  The kits include Lego bricks, including a programmable brick, motor parts, sensors, a remote control, a programmer app, advanced programming software for PC and Mac computers, an iPhone app and instructions for building different robots.  The Lansing teams used the kits to make their own designs, and to tweak them to best meet Friday's three challenges.

"In the beginning they were working with gear ratios to make it go faster, said Green Team Counselor Matt Robinson.  "They were pretty excited about that.  Also, they worked on designing a structure that would stay together when they are driving around and running into things.  That was the part they focussed on most.  And also a claw and grabber for the balls -- they had to tweak it to make sure the ball would stay in and be able to pull them off the strings.  They did a lot of innovative things."


Van said that no idea was too wacky on her team.

"We get them to work," she said.  "All of these are their own ideas.  If it doesn't work we'll make it work, no matter how wild, how wacky, how special the design is."

Van and Robinson are both Lansing High School graduates who were part of the school Robotics Team.  Van was president of the club last school year, and is still a booster, encouraging her 5th to 8th grade campers to join the team when they are old enough.  The club and last week's camp are advised by Lansing High School physics teacher Andrea Schneider.

"They were really good with their teamwork," Schneider said.  "Most of these people don't know each-other, so getting together and agreeing on what to do and who is doing what was a good success this time around.  And they seem to have an easier time with the programming than they did last year."


That was Robinson's take as well.

"They picked it up pretty quickly. The program that we use is visual, so you just drag and drop.  You don't have to know a specific language.  Last year the kids didn't enjoy it as much, but this year they were really excited.  That was what they wanted to do instead of the Legos."

The campers had to use those skills to meet three challenges.  In the first challenge the robots had to traverse a track in the best time.  Moving obstacles got them extra points, but knocking the obstacles over lost them points.  The second challenge was to grab balls that were hanging from strings, then depositing them in one of three places, each more difficult than the last.  In the third challenge the robots had to follow a blue line either autonomously or by remote control, ending up in a 'Sumo ring' at the top of a ramp.  The robot then had to deposit colored blocks into cups marked with that color for the most points, or any cup for some points.


This year's camp attracted 17 campers.  Six past and present Robotics Team members took the role of counselors.  The campers were split into five teams, competing Friday for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place medals, best notebook and most stylish awards.

"We figure somebody is going to be good at at least one of these things," Schneider said.

She noted that team members didn't necessarily know each other, but they meshed quickly.  Van said teamwork was important, and the campers also learned discipline while preparing for Friday's trials.

"I pushed them to practice," Van said.  "We went through the design process, brainstorming everything fairly quickly and we were set on a design very early on.  A large portion was practice, and since we have three members in our group each of them specializes in a certain event.  It's great for them, because they feel they are doing an important part, and it's just as much fun as building.  So they get to take part in both sides of it."

"It's been fun to see them get really excited about it.  In the beginning they were a little tentative, but they got into it after the second or third day they got really excited about getting it to work and seeing their first program run."

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