Spring Break
Tech students introduce younger students to engineering
Glenys Bolls
Issue date: 4/16/07 Section: News
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According to a press release from the Department of Electrical Engineering, the competition brought together more than 150 students from 14 Lubbock elementary schools. Students spent six weeks prior to the competition building and programming Lego robots to perform specific tasks, including moving and picking up objects.
"They programmed the robots using Lego Mindstorm and NXT kits," said Judy Patterson, a senior adviser in the Department of Engineering. "The elementary school students write the program and put it into the robot so when they press start, it does what it's programmed to do."
One of the department's goals in hosting the competition was to get Tech students involved in the community. Twenty-one engineering students helped at the various elementary schools in the weeks leading up to the competition.
"The Tech students went to the elementary schools to mentor and help while the elementary students were building and programming the robots," Patterson said.
The robotics competition originated from Boosting Engineering Science and Technology Robotics Inc., a non-profit volunteer organization whose mission is to inspire middle school and high school students to pursue careers in engineering, science and technology. According to its Web site, BEST Robotics attempts to make these fields interesting to students by organizing annual robotics competitions.
BEST has 36 regional hubs in 16 states; 24 of the hubs are operated by colleges or universities. Tech has been the home of the West Texas hub since 1995, hosting robotics competitions for middle school and high school students. In 2006, the competition was tested on third-grade through fifth-grade students for the first time. The West Texas and San Antonio hubs volunteered to try the program with elementary schools.
"This year was also those two hubs," Patterson said. "Next year we plan to expand to all 36 hubs nationwide."
Because Lubbock elementary schools participated in the competition last year, some students who competed this year were familiar with the competition.
"I have two levels," said Israel Garcia, a third-grade teacher at Harwell Elementary School. "One team is fourth-graders and one (is) fifth-graders. They did it last year. But my other team is third-graders. They're a lot of first-timers."
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