Before they head to qualifying competition Sunday at Grace College, Washington STEM Academy students displayed and demonstrated their Legos® Robotics to the community Tuesday night.
All fourth- and sixth-grade teams showcased their robots to parents, friends, peers and the community, according to Ben Barkey, STEM coach. Two of the 24 teams also gave their presentations.
The theme for the Lego® League robotics competition this year is “Senior Citizens.” Each robotics team at Washington had to adopt a senior citizen, find a problem they face and figure out how to address that problem.
Sixth-grader Olivia Hermann was on one of the teams that gave their presentation Tuesday night. Her team took on the issue of balancing because senior citizens have a hard time balancing, she said.
“I was nervous,” she said of giving the presentation, and it was hard. However, public speaking is a good skill to have, she said.
“When you’re older in life and have to talk to people, it’s easier,” she said.
On the robotics project, Dineli Presteguin, sixth-grader, said, “I think it’s pretty fascinating. It’s different. You’d think robotics would be all these wires – red wires, green wires, blue wires – but when you can build them out of Legos and program it, that’s pretty fascinating.”
She said in the last eight weeks, she and her team had to take their robot apart three to five times to improve it.
Sixth-grader Jaylen Reese plays basketball and compared athletic competition to academic competition.
“It’s different,” he said. “In other things, you worry about making the shot. For this, you worry that the robot will perform and do what you want it to do. On the court, there are five other people. With robots, everyone is just focused on you and your robot.”
He said there’s still excitement and an adrenaline rush in the robotics competition just like in sports.
Barkey said the community should see and understand that academic competition evokes the same emotions as athletic competition. By participating in athletic and academic competition, students are able to diversify their experiences and be more well rounded.
Getting ready for either type of competition, Reese said, requires the same mindset. With the robotics competition, he said he wants his robot to do missions and work eight of 10 times. In basketball, he wants to hit eight of 10 shots. The more one practices – whether with the robot or on the court – the more comfortable one is, Reese stated.
“It becomes second nature for the students,” Barkey said. “They don’t have to think about it.”
“You have to work well with your team. You have to have core values,” Reese said.
One of those core values students are taught, Barkey stated, was it’s not whether your win or lose, but what you learn. “You have to communicate well with others,” Reese said.
Washington is taking six teams of sixth-graders and two teams of fourth-graders to the Lego® League Grace College Qualifying Competition Sunday. New this year, it will take place between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. However, Barkey said the best time for the public to go and see the actual robotics competition will be about 12:30 p.m.
As a corporation, Warsaw Community Schools had a lot of teams participating in the qualifying competitions but there wasn’t always enough room for the Warsaw teams.
“That’s when we partnered with Grace,” said Barkey, to hold a local qualifying round.
All of the students’ success and learning wouldn’t be possible, however, without the hard work and dedication of the school’s teachers and staff, Barkey said.
Since Sept. 3, students have been working on their robotics and presentations.
“That where the teachers have done an outstanding job,” Barkey said. “It’s hard to invest time to do this.”
The project has incorporated academic standards so students can learn math, writing, etc. while working on their robotics.
Now, Barkey said, having gone through it the first year, the fourth- and sixth-grade teachers are excited for it next year. They see new things they can do next time.
The purpose of the STEM Academy is for project-based learning, Barkey said.
“Teachers have taken a lot of risk and gone out of their comfort zone for this and done an outstanding job,” he said. “We’re all in this together. We’re all learning new things.”
“What’s great is, we have authentic presentations,” Washington Principal Tom Ray said. “We talk a lot about standard test scores, but when students have the opportunity to give authentic presentations to the community, parents and their peers, it goes a long way toward 21st Century skills. When we talk about being college and career ready, this helps students be engaged in their own learning. Collaboration is big, being able to work with others.”
