Ashland high school senior, Sabrina Liu, and her fellow Robotics Club members are gearing up for the Robot Rodeo, Saturday, Nov. 18, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the Ashland High School cafeteria. The public is invited to attend.
“There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work, making sure everything goes smoothly, a lot of people-managing,” said Lui, who has been president of the Robotics club for the past three years. The 30 students in the club will build and run the stations at the Rodeo.
“I love seeing kids get excited about robots,” Lui said. Over 125 kids attended the Rodeo last year.
The Rodeo is the Robotics club’s main fundraising event of the year. The culminating activity for the Robotics Club is the annual New England Botball® Tournament held at UMass/Lowell in the spring.
Snacks and lunch will be available for purchase throughout the day. The cost for admission is $5 per child. “We will also have a $10 price point that gets kids some food and Robot Rodeo keepsakes. The price of the Microbit Workshop will be $50 and will include a Microbit, an hour-long workshop and entry to the Robot Rodeo,” Chad McGowan, club advisor and computer science teacher, said.
“This year there will also be an additional workshop for families to sign up for, where they learn to program a fun and easy-to-use circuit board with lots of built-in lights and sensors,” McGowan said. Attendees can register for the Microbit workshop at http://bit.ly/RodeoMicroBit.
“The Robot Rodeo is a community event that provides a fun, hands-on learning experience for kids of all ages with robot-themed activities throughout the day,” McGowan said. “From well-known robot toys, like Sphero and Ozobot, to robots designed more for education, like Finch robots and Edison Bots, the Robot Rodeo provides people with a hands-on experience programming, moving and building robots. The Ashland High School Robotics Club runs this event as a fund raiser, but more importantly, they get an opportunity to design and run activities with kids.”
“This family-friendly event gives kids of all ages a chance to experience a wide array of robots in just one day,” McGowan said. “Kids love getting to play with all of the robots and their parents may get some insight into how their kids connect to this evolving field. Everyone who attends will walk away with a new experience. They will see that robots are friendly and quite approachable. We hope to spark the imagination of the kids who attend, so they can say to their parents, ‘I can’t wait to join the Robotics Club!’”
Robots for Girls and Boys
“This event is just as popular with girls as it is with boys,” McGowan noted. “We want to encourage parents to bring their daughters and increase their exposure to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) fields in every way possible. By attending the Robot Rodeo, kids will hopefully be encouraged to start playing with other robots and technology in general, not just as a consumer, but as a maker and developer. These fields are expanding at a rapid rate, and while robots themselves may be primed to do certain jobs, the people who design, program and build better robots will be needed even more.”
Liu, who wants to study electrical engineering in college, said she wants to create technology to help people in their daily lives.
To donate to the Robotics Club, send a check, with “Robotics Club” in the memo line, to Ashland Student Activities, Ashland High School, 65 E. Union St., Ashland, MA 01721.
For more information on the November event, visit https://sites.google.com/a/ashland.k12.ma.us/ahs-robotics/robot-rodeo.
Issue Date:
November, 2017
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