This week, the Brashear Kids are learning all about technology. Mr. Dave from the Y Creator Space is here for our two week TECH Camp to show the kids how to build their own robot animals!
Before the kids started building, Mr. Dave taught them how to use the Hummingbird Robotics kit. Hummingbird technology was first developed in Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE lab, and it's so cool that our kids get to continue the Pittsburgh tradition of programming!
The kids split into teams, chose the animals they wanted to build, and got to planning. Some of the blueprints were very well thought out! While they were designing, the kids thought about how they wanted their robots to make people feel. Eventually, they came up with names and backstories for their robots!
The robot petting zoo is awesome because the kids not only get to learn about motors, coding, and programming, but they get to be creative! They diligently decorated their robots in ways that expressed their own personalities, and the backstories they came up with were so imaginative and entertaining. Also, the materials they used to build their robots really reinforced the concepts of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle that they learned during ECO Camp!
After three days, a mountain of cardboard, and a few minor hot glue injuries, the kids were starting to see the fruits of their labor. Team Mole Panda (pictured above) successfully programmed their eyes to light up and their legs to start moving. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing all your hard work pay off!
Of course, using all that brain power can get exhausting, so we made sure to keep things goofy and fun. We even had two birthdays to celebrate this week!
We can't wait until week two of TECH Camp to see how all the robots turn out! Thanks, Mr. Dave!
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