by David Snow
The Paducah Sun
October 21, 2021
Used with permission.
The Paducah Innovation Hub is playing host to the Regional Robotics Rally, an event that took place Tuesday and Thursday that introduces sixth-graders from other schools to the field of robotics with hands-on experience.
Tim Franklin, the makerspace director of the Paducah Innovation Hub, said the event is an outreach to regional schools. Crittenden County Middle School and Fulton Middle School were in the rally on Tuesday, and Fulton County Middle School and McLean County Middle School are taking part Thursday.
“We received a federal grant with the cooperation of the West Kentucky Education Cooperative and the GEAR UP initiative to offer computer science to students in the 10-county river region,” he said.
GEAR UP — which stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs — is a competitive federal grant program designed to increase the high school graduation and college-going rates of students in low-income communities. It was authorized by Congress in 1998.
Crittenden and Fulton used Sphero — a round robot that rolls on command from a tablet — during their visit on Tuesday.
“Sphero robots allow them to do basic maneuvering and operations and also to do block coding to complete challenges,” Franklin said. “When they complete challenges, they get a ticket that goes into a prize drawing. We’re giving away some robots and some tablets and some Innovation Hub gear.”
Sphero challenges included navigating the robot along a map and performing tasks at specific points, sending the robot through a maze and wending its way through an obstacle course.
The maps and mazes used by the students were created at the Paducah Innovation Hub.
Students also learned to operate construction robots in the form of miniature bulldozers and “grabbers” that enabled them to move or stack wooden blocks. Those who performed challenges on those robots also got a ticket for a prize drawing.
Franklin said the robot education aligns with STEM education — science, technology, engineering and math. Some school districts add an A for art and call it STEAM education.
“After this event is over, we’re going to take these same robots that we were able to get through this federal grant, and we’re going to travel to Paducah Middle School so that we can offer the same STEM robotic challenges to every kid in our district that we’ve offered to middle schools from the 10 river counties,” he said.
“This is not a competition; it’s an introduction to coding and robotics for
students who might otherwise be intimidated, so it’s a safe place to
come, learn, make mistakes and have fun without the intimidation of ‘I
must perform.’
Franklin estimated 50 students would take part in the Regional Robot Rally from the four visiting middle schools and about 700 students at Paducah Middle School, all through the GEAR UP grant.
“Each teacher who is here (from the four middle schools) will leave here with a Sphero robot, a tablet and a coding challenge — just for being here — to take back to their school to keep this activity going once they return,” he said.
“So, it’s not a ‘one and done.’ They show up, they participate and they leave with the tools to continue teaching computer science in their school, with hopes that we will be able to invite them back for future opportunities similar to this.”
Members of the West Kentucky Education Cooperative were on hand to staff the Regional Robotics Rally. Franklin said he appreciated them taking the time to volunteer for the event as well as the WKEC for its work in obtaining the GEAR UP grant.