Phase one, check. Phase two ... No kick. Back to the drawing board. But it only takes them a few minutes to make the necessary adjustments to the program. Next mission.
Lempner and Rogers were among 25 elementary and middle school students who signed up for the second Ross Rambotics Lego NXT Robotics Camp, which began Monday, June 14, at Ross High School.
“There’s so much problem solving involved,” said faculty adviser Jennifer Noxsel. “It’s really exciting to see them get so involved in learning — and they don’t even know they’re learning.”
Only about half of the students were actually from the Ross district, Noxsel. The rest came from outside districts, including Talawanda, Fairfield and from as far away as Mariemont.
The camp is designed as an introduction to the Lego NXT, a computer controlled building block that allows Lego creations to perform complex tasks such as the blue ball/red ball mission.
“They learn how to use the different sensors on the robots on up to getting to the point of writing their own programs,” Noxsel said. “It’s part of the FIRST (which stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”) Robotic program for kids, designed to get them excited about science and technology.
“A lot of kids are making career decisions in the sixth grade after having an experience like this,” she said.
The camp marks the first time that the Ross High School robotics team — aka “Rambotics” — has gotten involved in the camp, serving as mentors.
Lego NXT, designed for middle schoolers, and the high school robotics team where they build their robots from scratch have become a fast-growing extracurricular activity at Ross and other area schools. Even though their activities are centered on competitions, collaboration is still key. The Rambotics team just started last school year under the mentorship of the Lakota robotics team, and this year has doubled to about 24 members, according to co-captain James Rutherford.
“What we learn is more important than what we win,” Noxsel said. “We had teams form out of our camp last year. We’ve been asked to host a tournament in November because the FIRST program is growing so fast.
“It’s gone viral.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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