Lessons in Life and Robots

Recently I have been lucky enough to be able to work in Shark Boy’s Challenge classroom. That is what they call the gifted program at his school here in South Georgia. He goes once a week all day. I volunteered to help with a project and it turned into a weekly gig. I work 2 hours every Monday. And guess what I get to help with? Robots! Seriously? That is so freaking awesome! I learned so much today, on my first day helping.  The kids in the class are absolutely incredible people. Every one of them! I was utterly impressed with the way they handled themselves as well as the skills they portrayed.  These 9 and 10 year old kids were broken up into groups of three. Each group was given a “robot kit” containing a “brain”, a few motors, several different types of sensors, and plenty of building materials. The assignment: design and build a robot that can enter an 18 in.x18 in. cave, go forward 10 ft, turn 90 degrees to the right, go 6 feet, turn 90 degrees to the right and go 3 more feet onto a pressure plate that will open a bigger door.

My job was to go around to the 6 different groups and offer help, encouragement, and guidance. These kids blew my mind! After about an hour I had learned enough from the kids as well as their teacher to offer some guidance and help. It was absolutely amazing to watch the kids in action. They knew how to work together, offer advice, spread the work around, cooperate, and be patient with the process. Several times I witnessed a group having to start over after putting a lot of thought and effort into their project because some aspect of it wasn’t going to work. Not once did I see any of them upset at having worked so hard and then having to start again. They just took it apart, reevaluated and started again. Definitely the inspiration of my week!

 Can’t wait for next week! I get to learn how to program the robots! …er I mean, help the kids program the robots.