A year-long effort to establish a robotics program as an official 4-H club was rewarded this week.

A year-long effort to establish a robotics program as an official 4-H club was rewarded this week. Shari Graber, a White Pigeon resident who oversees the club, said she was informed Tuesday that the robotics club was approved as a 4-H activity, a status she had been pursuing since last year. A big step for us, a very exciting step, she said. The club started meeting in summer 2016 to prepare a robot for display at the St. Joseph County Grange Fair. The final project was an underwater robot that Graber said debuted very well and drew plenty of attention at the fair. Work centered on wire-cutting and stripping, water-proofing, engineering and other tasks, including determining the flow of electricity. The project, Graber said, involved a substantial amount of teamwork and also required knowledge of electronics, mechanics and programming. Every single member participated, which really pleased me and the success of it really united the group, Graber said. Were now in the process of putting robot guidelines into the fair book so there is a benchmark for judging. Future entries will be categorized in the fairs ribbon class, she said. The club is open to St. Joseph County residents ages 9-19. Beginning in April, members meet 6-8 p.m. the second and fourth Thursday each month at Centreville Elementary School. Graber said the club started with 11 members and now has 25. The growing number, she said, reflects the interest in like-minded students with an interest in the field of robotics. There are kids who are good at sports and thats what they do. There are kids in band and they are good at it, and thats what they pursue, Graber said. There are kids who are more engineering-minded, who are really interested in the technological side of things, and the robotics club is where they seem to shine. Graber earned qualifications to lead the club following a training session at Kettunen Center near Cadillac. Her interest in the program began when she lived elsewhere in Michigan and found herself driving her 8-year-old son an hour each way to a location in Fort Wayne, Ind. Graber found that, after moving to St. Joseph County, her son maintained an interest in the robotics program. Graber, however, decided she had had enough of the hour-long drives. The training took some time and, of course, it was a necessary step, she said. But it was worth it. The kids really enjoy this and I think the parents are happy that the only distance they have to travel is to Centreville once a month. The group currently is working on a robot using eight Lego Mindstorm EV3 core sets. Each kit costs more than $800 and assembly involves knowledge in touch and color sensors, speed, direction and sonar. It also will be programmed to talk and play music, Graber said. What it is is a simplified version of a robot that police, for example, would use to go into a house that might not be safe for a human to enter, Graber said. We have between now and September to perfect it. Graber said a robotics club is common in larger communities or bigger school districts. The larger districts and communities have the luxury of stronger funding, but the St. Joseph County club has a small but strong amount of financial support from residents and local businesses. Knowledge of designing robots is relevant in St. Joseph County, she said. Think about the robotics already in use for agriculture purposes milking, irrigating, soil testing, lots of things out in the fields, Graber said. Beyond that, think about how robotics are used industry right here in St. Joseph County. Im really excited about this club and its potential its exciting to see the kids taking such a strong interest in it. The Centreville-based group is called the CloverBOTS 4-H Club. BOTS is an acronym for Builders Of Technology and Science. The club is supported by Centreville Lions Club, United Way of St. Joseph County, St. Joseph County Youth Council, Meijer, Walmart, Western Diversified Plastics and TH Plastics. In addition to Graber, the club is overseen by Valerie Bungart and Kenton and Michele Kelley.

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News Focus: Club offers youth opportunity in robotics - Sturgis Journal