Many kids go to summer camps and learn how to fish, swim, ride horses and more. Campers at the Western Science Center in Hemet spent a week learning how to build, program and operate robots.
Two sessions of camp provided more than 20 kids the opportunity to spend three hours each morning working with plastic gears, wheels, tracks, tires and motors to create creatures or vehicles that battled each other in friendly competitions.
Greg Fuller teaches seventh-grade social studies and eighth-grade robotics at the Western Science Academy. Before entering the education field nine years ago, he spent many years working with high-tech computer software.
“The camp kids used the Lego NXT Mindstorms (robots). It’s a good platform to learn basic programming and for understanding how robots work,” Fuller said.
Each kit contains more than 600 elements, including an NXT micro-computer that acts as the robot’s brain, touch sensors to help it feel, ultrasonic sensor so it can detect motion and more.
“I teach more hands-on applications and less theory,” said Fuller, of Menifee. “We’re really here to guide them and provide suggestions. They can just take off and do what they want.”
Open to students entering third through fifth grades, the “Robotics — Jump In!” camp had kids building and programming robots from Day One and creating a custom-built robot to show off to relatives who were invited to an open house after the final class.
“On the programming side, the computer shows them how to do it step by step, using pictures,” Fuller said.
Fuller formed a FIRST Robotics Club at the specialized Hemet school in February. Meeting once a week after school, the club had 30 seventh- and eighth-graders plus a waiting list. Several club members returned this summer to serve as lab assistants to the younger campers.
“I like teaching younger kids about robots,” said Jacob Montgomery, who was helping Zubin Carvalho. “I’ve always had an interest in electronics and how it can help in our daily life.”
The club started off with Lego’s NXT robot kits and graduated to the TETRIX robot platform in tournaments. Members belong to the FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) league, which includes aluminum frames and controllers.
“Part of being in the Robotics Club is learning to be generous and help others and to be a good sport,” said Jacob, 13.
Sidonia Carrillo, 10, is looking forward to being a student at the academy, partly so she can learn even more about robots.
“I’m interested in robots and Legos, and this camp is all about Lego robots so it’s kind of perfect for me,” Sidonia said. She is one of a handful of girls who joined the camp.
Thad Powers was intent on programming his robot to perform the way he wanted before taking it to “battle.”
“I play computer games and that has helped me a little here,” said Thad, 8.
