Students from Fox Chapel Area High School recently got together with students from Dorseyville Middle School to create robots. And recruits.
Their plan is not to take over the school district, but to promote science, technology, engineering and math to their younger counterparts while building interest in Fourth River Robotics.
Founded by a group of high school students in 2013, the robotics team participates in local competitions and reaches out to younger students to promote both the club and STEM education. In December, teammates ran RoboClass 101 at the middle school, a free, three-part series of classes on the basics of robotic design and programming using Lego Mindstorm kits.
“We had students of all different abilities and levels take the class,” said Mimi Loeffler,gifted support teacher with the eighth-grade Quest program at Dorseyville. “I was just thrilled about that.”
Ms. Loeffler helped to coordinate the event with high school student leaders. “They approached me because of my role at the middle school,” she said. “I had most of them as students.” She found the place and time and the robotics team members took it from there.
Ishan Khatri, a 16-year-old junior at the high school, serves as programmer-engineer liaison with the robotics club. He and club president Konrad Urban, also a junior, led the classes.
“RoboClass originally started when Konrad and I were brainstorming ideas for our team to do community outreach,” Ishan said. “We settled on the idea of doing a class for younger children because we felt that the middle school didn’t expose children to the field of robotics and engineering enough. This was a problem that we had had first-hand experience with when we were recruiting new members for our team. There were just not enough high school freshmen who were interested in robotics and had the experience we needed.”
Once Konrad and Ishan had settled on RoboClass, they contacted teachers and staff at both the middle and high schools for help in planning. In addition to Ms. Loeffler, Ken Grimm, industrial technology teacher at the high school, coordinated the class. Scott Hand, the district’s coordinator of educational technology, helped the robotics teammates design a curriculum.
“What I enjoyed the most about the [Dorseyville Middle School] event was the opportunity it provided to teach students about robotics and the interest that all the children showed in wanting to learn about something new,” Ishan said.
Eighth-grader Jay Kashyap, 13, said he learned about the class from an email from Ms. Loeffler. “I learned how to program a Mindstorm and a bunch of ways to use robotics. This was definitely something that would keep me interested in robotics.”
Sanjana Harish,14, an eighth-grader, also heard about the program though Ms. Loeffler, her QUEST teacher, and was interested. “I like the program a lot and thought the hands-on activities were fun. I learned about the different parts that go to into making a robot and how robots are used in daily life. This program definitely is going to keep me interested in robotics.”
Goal met for the robotics team; the latest outreach project worked. “Hopefully, by doing outreach events such as this one, we can foster the next generation of students who will use science, technology and math to change the world!” Ishan said.
Ishan and Konrad are planning more classes for 2015. “It’s a learning process for all of us,” said Ms. Loeffler. “A lot of work goes into coordinating transportation, space and students’ schedules.”
Rita Michel, freelance writer, suburbanliving@post-gazette.com.
First Published: January 29, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
