Golden Apple: Students Learn Lego Robotics At Baxter Elementary

It’s a lesson in programming that gets the students thinking about the process of engineering.

“Giving them that chance to just tinker, play around, watching a video, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, trial-and-error and those types of perseverance,” said Baxter Elementary Technology Integrationist Travis Raske.

It starts off by building the actual robot using Legos.

“It’s kind of easy since I’ve had Legos since I was five,” said fourth grader Trey Aversoll.

And then, it is all about using the computer.

“I really like it a lot,” Aversoll said. “My favorite part is the programming.”

It’s also about getting the robot to move the way you want it to.

“We’ve been working on programming it and making it on this obstacle course where you have to knock down the tire, drive more and then knock down the other tire,” said fourth grader Liam Smith.

“No matter what their academic level, they can all succeed in this,” said Robert Johnson, a fourth grade classroom teacher at Baxter Elementary. “It’s easy and it’s fun for them to do.”

It’s a 10 day project that all of the fourth grade classrooms at Baxter Elementary got to experience.

“So amazed at how they just flocked to it, they just took to it in everything that we did, they wanted to do more and it was just so much fun,” Raske said. “It’s amazing because kids today are watching YouTube to learn ,and that’s what we are doing here is going to a website to get YouTube videos and then apply what they know from those.”

It’s a skill they can take with them to Forestview Middle School with their Lego Robotics Competition Program.