ROBOTICS RENDEZVOUS – Tahlequah Daily Press

Elementary school projects have come a long way since the days of paper mache volcanos.

These days, students from all around Cherokee County are taking science to a new level with robotics clubs, vying with other schools to see who has the best creation.

A couple of the schools that compete throughout the state are Greenwood and Heritage elementary schools, and both have earned their way to Vex Robotics World Competition in Louisville, Ky.

Mendy McKee, a fourth-grade math and science teacher at Heritage, said she's beyond proud of her students on the robotics team for making it to the world competition.

"They're really pumped up right now," she said. "The world competition takes money, though, so now they're in the business of asking sponsors within the community for support, and they're entering classrooms with their robot to talk to the kids more about the program."

The schools' robotics teams are formed through the Tahlequah Public Schools Boys & Girls Club, and require after-school participation.

Lori Freymuth of Greenwood Elementary said the program allows kids from all walks of life to get involved in an extracurricular activity.

"They're all different," she said. "We have kids who are severely autistic who cannot function in a normal classroom typically, and they bring something to the table. We had a little boy last year who was kicked out of four different schools for behavior. [He] came into our program and you could tell it was his niche. His scores in school went up and his behavior issues stopped, because he knew that he had somewhere he belonged and that he was valued."

The robotics clubs allow students to develop skills like critical thinking, project management and communication - all of which are required to help them become the next generation of innovators.

McKee said part of the goal is to get the students thinking creatively.

"They're realizing that it does take an outside-of-the-box thinker to create something," she said. "Learning isn't all cut and dry - A, B, C, D - right-or-wrong answers. We need some out-of-the-box thinkers and some who are willing to try things and make mistakes."

Aside from building a robot, the students have to learn how to design it, program it and present it.

"There's something for everyone," Freymuth said. "There's so many different avenues and they all have their niche."

While it teaches the students how to communicate to an audience for a presentation, it also shows them how to effectively communicate with one another.

Cayden Nix of Greenwood said the groups don't always see eye-to-eye on different portions of the projects.

"We had to sit down and talk about all of our ideas," he said. "When we listened to each other, that's when we started to understand each other a lot better than usual."

The robotics projects have had students working all year long, which involved countless hours of trial and error.

"This is probably our 20th design and counting," said Matt Talburt of Greenwood, holding his robot.

Both schools will test their robots on the world stage in Louisville, at the Kentucky Exposition Center, April 23 - 25.

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ROBOTICS RENDEZVOUS - Tahlequah Daily Press