Akron Public Schools in Attendance Litchfield Middle School Buchtel CLC East CLC Jennings CLC Hyre CLC Miller South Middle School NIHF STEM Middle Schoool |
There are two main things that prevent people from starting new activities; cost and age. Most people assume that in order to be good at something, you have to start in elementary school, like with gymnastics or soccer. Luckily, that's not true with robotics, in fact, as long as you have a keen and eager mind, you can start at any time.
The Middle School Robotics Event is a perfect example of that, actually! Imagine that. One early Saturday morning a year, swarms of middle schoolers converge on the Firestone High School gymnasium, herded by Project Lead the way Students and teachers. In 2011, Mr. Dan Spak held the inaugural 'Middle School Robotics' event for less than a handful of schools, unaware that it would eventually grow into an annual event that would house nearly all the middle schools in the district. Teams of students are each given a common bill of materials, a time limit, and a Pre-Engineering student as a guide as they foray into mysterious world of robotics. Their supplies include things like wooden axles, different sized plastic wheels, rubber bands, three default direct drive motors, an assortment of gears, plastic tubing, plastic base plates, screws and nuts, and an adapter cord that would hook the motors up to our control boxes.
The game is simple: When the time runs out, students face off in a game of ping-pong soccer; whoever scores the most points in two minutes wins. The students of Project Lead the Way are recruited every year by Mr. Spak to run what has grown into a huge annual event at the high school, from setting up the gym early in the morning, to posing as team mentors, manning troubleshooting tables, passing out supplies, greeting teachers and parents, registering each student that comes to compete, commentating and refereeing matches, announcing results, running the projection screen, taking pictures, presenting awards and finally cleaning up after it all. With eight of Akron Public School's nine middle schools in attendance, running this event requires all hands on deck. We'd like to thank our sponsor, Papa John's Pizza for providing lunch for the event! |