Students Participate In Robotics

Bob Li, 9, left, and John Michael McCarthy, 9, get some help Wednesday from club facilitator Bayleigh Jones of
Springdale during a meeting of the Robotics Club at Leverett Elementary School in Fayetteville.
Bob Li, 9, left, and John Michael McCarthy, 9, get some help Wednesday from club facilitator Bayleigh Jones of Springdale during a meeting of the Robotics Club at Leverett Elementary School in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE — Students were having a lot fun in a classroom Wednesday at Leverett Elementary School.

There was probably a lot of learning happening too, but it wasn’t measurable.

Third- and fourth-graders were busy building an arm and attaching it to the body of a robot, then programming the arm to knock a small plastic ball off a holder.

Mukul Kulkarni, 9, and Gabriel Guadalupe, 9, worked together on the project.

“I’m interested in robots. I like Legos. I like to build things,” Mukul said, as Gabriel put parts together to build the arm.

The two are among 16 students at Leverett who are members of an afterschool robotics club, led by two University of Arkansas students. The children work in pairs, using an interlocking plastic block kit with different pieces to build attachments for the robots.

The project involves math, such as calculating the distance wheels will travel, and technology, such as programming the robot to hit the ball or turn around when it bumps into a wall or chair leg.

The students were so engaged in what they were doing they hardly looked up when visitors entered the room.

Sarah Bart, an elementary education major, and Bayleigh Jones, technology engineering education major, volunteered to lead the club. They are guides more than teachers, helping the students when they are stumped or showing them how to handle the next step in a process.

Jones said the robot kits are part of Denmark's Lego Group's education series. The school recently purchased the kits to start the robotics club and appealed to Vinson Carter, an instructor in the childhood education program at the University of Arkansas. Carter asked his class if anyone was interested in helping create the club. Bart and Jones stepped forward.

They worked with Principal Cheryl Putnam to launch the program.

“We get to build robots that we can actually program,” said 10-year-old Will Mock as his partner Anshuman Nandy, 10, worked on the arm.

Carter said the club offers a good opportunity for the students to solve problems.

“It brings math to life,” Carter said, noting many students, even college level students, haven’t put circumference in real terms.

“It’s fun to build things with a partner,” said Tarrah Aaron, 9. Though her partner, 9-year-old Izabel Crone said, “It’s more confusing than just playing with Legos.”

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