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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2016)
-);<-:67:-/768):-6<7K\WJMZ Motion commotion: Robotics in Eastern Oregon Education Photo courtesy of Umatilla Robotics By JENNIFER COLTON In April of this year, a robot from Eastern Oregon traveled to St. Louis, stormed a castle and threw boulder dodge balls. Run by a remote control and par ally self-propelled, the robot stood its ground against hundreds of other robots and world-class compe on – but this robot wasn’t built in a big city by a major corpora on. All the fabrica on, electrical work and programming was done in a simple classroom behind the shop room at Uma lla High School and it went on to compete at the FIRST Robo c Challenge world fi nals. Uma lla’s Team 4125 Confi den- al didn’t bring home a medal at the fi nals, but that hasn’t stopped the club’s momentum from branch- ing out across northeast Oregon. Now in its sixth year, Uma lla’s fl edgling program, ini ally the only one in the county, has inspired other districts to take on robo cs. In the 2016-7 school year, ro- bo cs programs or clubs are be- ing off ered in: Echo (high school), Hermiston (mul ple levels), Milton- Freewater (middle school), Morrow County (elementary through high school), Pendleton (middle and high school), Pilot Rock (high school), Stanfi eld (middle and high school), Uma lla (all levels) and Union (el- ementary and high school). With its success, Uma lla’s robot- ics team has grown from nine stu- dents in 2012 to 50 in 2016, and the program has expanded to include elementary and middle school stu- dents. The high school team mem- bers serve as mentors and coaches for the younger classes. Thanks to a grant in STEM – that’s Science, Technology, Engi- neering and Mathema cs – Uma- Members of Umatilla’s Team 4125 Confi dential and adviser Kyle Sipe con- trol the team’s robot during a competition in Portland earlier this year. lla off ers robo cs programs to all students. In Uma lla, a full 25 percent of the district’s students par cipate in robo cs programs. They’ve worked with the #ILook- LikeAnEngineer campaign to raise awareness of women in STEM fi elds. They’ve won awards at dis- trict and regional levels and have been to the St. Louis world champi- onships three mes. FIRST, which stands for Inspira- on and Recogni on of Science and Technology, is a nonprofi t based in New Hampshire. Since its fi rst robo cs compe on in 1992, FIRST has engaged hundreds of thousands of students na onally and globally. In 2017, FIRST plans to hold two championships – one in Houston and one in St. Louis – for the fi rst me. Learn more at www. fi rs nspires.org. FIRST off ers robo cs programs at four levels, from kindergarten through high school. The young- est team members start with LEGO blocks and motorized elements, progressing to designing, building and programming a robot from scratch. Teams at all levels work to solve real-world science and en- gineering challenges. Team 4125 Confi den al competes in the FIRST Robo cs Challenge (FRC), the most high-tech of the robo cs compe- ons, requiring a full team of students to build a robot from the ground up. An alternate compe on, known as FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), includes 7th to 12th graders. FTC teams launched their kick off in September, and, in Eastern Or- egon, it promises to be quite a fi ght this year, as teams have formed throughout Uma lla, Morrow and Union coun es. Almost all of the robo cs clubs or programs will par cipate in a FIRST ac vity. Heidi Sipe, superintendent of the Uma lla School District, says robo cs not only teaches students technical skills used to create and control the robot, but also social skills in “gracious professionalism,” teamwork and coopera on. “I think one of the biggest things about robo cs is the idea of coop- era on,” she said. “It’s the idea of constantly keeping kids challenged and helping them understand that helping someone else get be er helps everyone. That’s hard for kids to understand, and in robo cs, they get it.” Students can also earn scholar- ships either directly from organiza- ons like FIRST or by leveraging their robo cs experience to boost their chances at receiving scholar- ships elsewhere. Students from Uma lla, for example, have gone on to professional careers, earned scholarships and been courted by colleges like MIT. “It’s a pre y neat environment,” Sipe said. “It opens a lot of doors.” At younger ages, robo cs teach- es motor skills and problem-solving. At higher levels, robo cs can help teach programming and electrical skills students can transfer directly to a profession or higher educa on. At all levels, robo cs clubs teach teamwork, collabora on, decision making and communica on skills. As technology advances, having experience in robo cs, STEM fi elds and cri cal thinking can only help students be successful – and all of that is happening right here in Eastern Oregon. ________ Jennifer Colton is news director of KOHU and KQFM, and mother of three, based in Pendleton.
