Lego robotics program teaches programming, problem solving skills – The News (subscription)

Some students shine on the athletic field. Others, however, have talents to showcase in a smaller arena, using computer programming technology and a mechanical robot.

At Glynn Middle School, those students can find their niche on the new lego robotics team, which is currently in the preparation stage ahead of its next season this fall.

Sidney Carter, the career exploratory technology instructor at Glynn Middle, started the team last year and sent them to the first competition, where he said they placed fifth among nearly 20 teams.

Now theyre going to have a year under their belt when theyre seventh graders, and Ill have a new group of sixth graders who will come with them, he said. And were looking forward to them being veterans now.

Lego Robotics competitions are high stakes and high intensity, Carter said. Two minutes and 30 seconds are put on the clock, and each team has to complete as many challenges as possible using their programmed robots.

Challenges include moving items around the board, avoiding collisions and building objects.

Theres always something that can go wrong, he said. You could set the robot up and its off by just an inch, so when it goes to make this turn it turns short and hits the barrier.

The students program the robots using a laptop. Each programmed command makes the robot do a single action, and Carter has already found that the young students are skilled programmers.

They get to clicking and they know the short cut keys, he said. Because its Lego, theyve made it all graphic-based, so inside of having to read code and all these complicated symbols, its pictures.

The students are learning problem-solving skills with an added element of creativity, Carter said.

I give them a challenge and theres 90 ways to solve that challenge, he said. And they have to find one that they know enough of to be able to plan it, get it done and build it.

Programmed commands are chained together, and the chains may fill up entire computer screens, he said. If one mistake exists, the students have to comb through the entire page to find it.

Its ridiculous, he said. Their patience is amazing, to see them go through that process.

Ben Mahony, a seventh grader on the team, said he loved getting the chance to compete.

I get to create things, he said. The competition was pretty cool. Its fun, you get to build things and program robots.

But more importantly, Carter said, the Lego Robotics team is offering these students a place to develop team building skills and show off their robot programming skills, which hadnt previously existed at Glynn Middle.

Carter said the teams success surpassed his expectations last year, and hes looking forward to how much better theyll be next year, with an additional year of practice.

Last time, he said they only put in about a month of practice before the big event.

Its like we didnt have spring training, we missed out on that, he said. So for us to have done as well as they did and be able to hold their own as far as being able to compete with these other teams was great.

The program is the first of its kind in Glynn County, and Carter said he hopes to see it grow.

Were hoping that eventually its going to catch on to the rest of our middle schools, he said.

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Lego robotics program teaches programming, problem solving skills - The News (subscription)