The season for Michigan FIRST Robotics is well underway.
And while building robots is fun, the program can also be a game changer for students, inspiring them to pursue an interest in tech related fields.
Elyse Lopez Turner of Detroit Labs and Joaquin Nuno-Whelan of General Motors stopped by Broadcast House this morning to talk about the teams they help mentor from the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation.
"FIRST Robotics is the best thing I've ever seen for teaching kids STEM activities...hands-on, quick and in six weeks, you go from not knowing anything about it to building a full working robot," said Nuno-Whelan.
The pair showed off "Mechanical Puma 1" from the Western International High School team, the Mechanical Pumas.
"We did some pre-season education.. electrical, mechanical and also business, because in a team, they are not only building a robot, they have to present professionally at competitions. So it's been really inspiring to see students go from knowing nothing.. to building a full-on functioning robot, learning through play," said Lopez Turner.
Each year, the teams are issued a challenge. This competition season, robots will have to be capable of shooting balls about 20 feet into a boiler and deliver gears to the center of the playing field where a team member will put them together to make a "STEAMship" take off. At the end of the match, Nuno-Whelan says the bots will then have to climb a six foot rope.
"They do it in teams of three together in an alliance, so they really build this "coopertition" -- it's called -- where they compete but cooperate at the same time," he said.
Most importantly, they say, the program really helps give kids an eye on the future.
"We have over 50 mentors that come from mostly GM but other companies that work hundreds of hours with these kids and the near-peer mentoring, the robot is just the vehicle to make all of that happen," said Nuno-Whelan. "With the 10 teams we now have at DHDC, and over 150 high school kids doing this... it's grown into a STEM-pipeline, so we have kids now graduating, getting full ride scholarships to study engineering and then we fight over hiring them."
To learn more about FIRST Robotics, check this out. Also, if you're interested in learning more about the DHDC, go here.
