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New tin men coming to middle school robotics class
By kristine Gill
The robots in Dave Izzo’s class take a daily beating.
“They hit the deck, drive off the table,” Izzo said. “They’re really starting to wear out.”
After more than five years at the mercy of budding seventh-grade programmers, they’re getting a break.
Izzo’s robotics class at Canfield Village Middle School recently received a $3,000 grant through the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation to purchase a dozen new robots for next semester.
During class Tuesday, students programmed their robots to stay inside a large rectangle outlined in black tape. The robots were programmed to sense the amount of reflected light from a given surface, and move away from the reflectionlevels of black tape to stay along a white surface.
The old models students used Tuesday, of which Izzo has about 20, will be sold or else retire to the top drawer of his filing cabinet dubbed “the graveyard,” where five of the old models reside.
That’s a relief to some students who have run into problems with them.
“We have a lot of issues,” said Monica Bone, 13. “Our brick didn’t work, and our sensor was messed up.” The brick is the robot’s brain.
Both robot models are made by Lego and resemble small cars.
The old models run on AA batteries and use infrared to transfer the programming language students write from the computer to the robot’s brain.
The new models, NXTs, run on lithium-oxide batteries and connect to the computer by USB cable.
“I just think it’s so cool that we actually get to make robots, and they actually work,” Monica said.
Partners Tyler Young, 12, and Anthony Messuri, 13, completed an extra-credit assignment during class that required that they make their robot play a song they programmed.
“It’s James Bond,” Anthony said of the tune. A fan of Legos in general, he brought in a Lego character to sit atop his classroom robot. Decked out in a little black suit, the tiny man looked enough like James Bond to fit the tune.
Anthony said his father works at Youngstown State University and uses some of the same robot models.
“He has problems with his, and we have problems with ours,” Anthony said.
Thirteen-year-old Jess Bowman already has zipped through the 10 assignments posted in the classroom.
He’s working on No. 11 now and says he does better in his math and science classes than in English. He by far favors the robotics class
Izzo is glad to be able to continue the class with better equipment. He said the class is important because it incorporates problem solving, math, reading and interpretation skills.
“This is more than just trying to get a toy to follow a crooked line,” Izzo said.