Robotics Camp Helps Build Multiple Skills

Some children, ages 7 to 14, experienced a first in Van Zandt County last week – Robotics Day Camp.

First United Methodist Church in Canton was the site for the weeklong event which taught children not only building skills with computers, but also life skills.

Leslie Nychka, teacher of the 7-9 year old WeDo group, explained that children sat down in groups and put together a Lego robot which was connected to a computer. Then they built the "brains" of the computer by giving it a motor, gear and other parts.

"Children learn about motors, gears and use math, shapes, and they use other skills by work with a computer," Mrs. Nychka said. "It is very visual. It teaches them how to work with these motors, gears, and sensors."

"They get so excited to see it work once they put it together," she added.

Mrs. Nychka said that although this was a robotics camp they also explained that, "They are still morally responsible for what they are building. They are responsible for making wise choices."

"We want to make learning fun, and this has been Christ centered," Mrs. Nychka said. "There is a team aspect to this of working in groups."

"We have had so many parents and grandparents come up to us and say, they think this is such a great fit for their kids," Mrs. Nychka added.

Her husband Robert, an engineer at Texas Instruments, worked with the older kids ages 9 to 13 in the NXTC class.

Mr. Nychka explained these students built a program and downloaded it into a box, then attached it to their robot that moved freely from the computer.

Once the program is downloaded, the kids, are given up to 10 challenges to complete with their robot.

Again, the kids are put in groups of two and must problem solve and learn to work together as a team.

"The kids that are super interested in this have been a lot of fun," Mr. Nychka said. "It has really been a blast."

"It’s been a lot of work for us, but to end up here has really been worth it," he added.

The Nychka’s plan to start a club in the fall and those students will participate in the first Lego League Competition in Dallas.

"We want to run the camp as a science outreach in the community," Mr. Nychka said.

The Nychka’s said that they realize there are many kids in communities who may not have an interest in sports, but do have an interest in computers or science and this gives them an outlet.

Twelve-year-old Spencer Pennington, and his team partner 10-year-old Justin Rhines, said they both enjoyed Robotics Camp because of their great interest in science and computers.

"I like science and making experiments," Pennington, a seventh grader at Canton Junior High said. "This took a lot of team work and hard work, but in the end, it was worth it."

"I like all the programming aspects of it," Rhines, a Canton Junior High sixth grader explained. "It was a lot of hard work, but fun."