Eric Wildstein Gazette staff TheGazetteEric

Middle-schoolers are spending the week building robots for solutions to real-world logistics.

Joshua Crowder and his teammates spent Tuesday at Cramerton Middle School planning how to build a remote-controlled metal robot that can drive debris from one location to another. Though their design wont carry the tonnage of a real-life snow plow, bulldozer, backhoe or excavator, the team is confident their scaled-down creation will work similarly to its life-sized counterparts.

To solve real-world problems, its fun, said Crowder, a rising seventh-grader at Cramerton Middle. Were actually building something physically to help other people.

Crowder is one of about 120 students participating in the school systems first-ever summer Robotics Camp for rising sixth- to eighth-graders. The weeklong camp started at Cramerton Middle on Monday, Aug. 7, and ends Friday, Aug. 11.

Throughout the week, campers will learn robotics-related vocabulary, design and plan their robots, and then begin to build, piecing together a chassis, wheels and affixing battery-operated motors. The camp culminates Friday when teams compete head-to-head, using their robots to move as many pieces of debris to specified locations in two minutes.

The camp is led by six teachers from Gastons public schools, many of whom also serve as coaches for First Lego League robotics teams or teach robotics classes at the countys 11 middle schools.

Elizabeth Bobee, a science and social studies teacher at Belmont Middle School, says the camp is intended to teach students skills such as how to work together and be part of a team, to troubleshoot, and to perseverance when faced with a challenge.

The knowledge and skill is important but youve got to use it and apply it, she said. So I think that having these robotics teams really helps the kids have a real-world application where they have a little bit of fun but theyre also learning those crucial skills.

Many campers already compete with their schools First Lego League robotics team, where they use plastic Lego kits and motors to build robots for local and state competitions.

Aimee Wucherer is a rising eighth-grader at Belmont Middle School and a camper at the Robotics Camp. She joined her schools First Lego League robotics team last year, helping them to build a robot contraption that in real-life could hypothetically guide a shark into different areas of a tank.

I just like the challenge and that you have to think outside the box and sometimes who have to think of the box, said Wucherer, of robotics.

She and Crowder are also excited to see the designs their peers create this week.

Cleanup after Fridays final day should be a breeze; the robots will take care of it.

You can reach Eric Wildstein at 704-869-1828 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteEric.

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