Robotics club holds event ahead of national competition

Eight-year-old Summer Lee of Springfield and her brother Griffin, 7, came with their parents to Saturday’s Rogue Robots of 4-H open house hoping to build the fastest mousetrap car and acquire valuable STEM education skills.

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2017-05-15 / Front Page Print Robotics club holds event ahead of national competition By ALLAN STEIN Eagle Times correspondent Summer Lee, 8, and her brother Griffin, 8, of Springfield, Vermont display their mouse-trap cars during an open house at Home Depot in Claremont on Saturday. The event was sponsored by Rogue Robots of 4-H ahead of national competition on May 19. — ALLAN STEIN CLAREMONT — The object of Saturday’s Rogue Robots of 4-H open house wasn’t to build a better mousetrap, but to teach children the engineering skills to build the best mousetrap car. “They’re not hard to build. They’re something they can build in an hour. They’re done in progressive moves [and] everybody feels they have made something,” said event coordinator Pamela Numme. “They even do these in college.” The event was held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Home Depot in Claremont for children ages 8 to 18 ahead of national competition on May 19. Members of the 4-H Rogue Robots are headed to the SeaPerch national competition for the second year in a row this Friday. Stephen Bosonack, Alison Numme, Mattias Page and Josh Shuey competed along with 50 other teams at the regional SeaPerch challenge at the University of New Hampshire on April 7, placing first among 12 teams in their division and second overall. According to the program website, SeaPerch is an underwater robotics program that equips teachers and students with the resources they need to build an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) in an in-school or out-of-school setting with the goal of stimulating student interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related fields. Students build the ROV from a kit comprised of low-cost, easily accessible parts, following a curriculum that teaches basic engineering and science concepts with a marine engineering theme. On Saturday, May 13, high school age members of 4-H’s after-school robotics program were on hand to demonstrate the basic principles of robotics. Using tools and materials provided by 4-H and Home Depot, younger children put together mousetrap cars with the help of club mentors. Numme said the cars are simple devices glued together with a cardboard chassis, wooden dowels for axles, CDs for wheels, and a mousetrap, whose spring serves as the engine. A string attached to the mousetrap by way of a dowel mast is then wound around the rear axle. The car moves forward by raising the mast and allowing the string to unwind. “The glueing itself is not hard. It’s getting [the pieces] into the right place,” said 4-H senior mentor Carl Hurd of North Springfield, Vermont. After the cars were built, the children took turns racing against each other. Three children with the fastest mousetrap cars will advance to regional competition, Numme said. Eight-year-old Summer Lee of Springfield and her brother Griffin, 7, came with their parents hoping to build the fastest mousetrap car and acquire valuable STEM education skills. “This is our first time doing this with the robotics club,” said their father, Alex Lee. The instructions were easy for Summer and Griffin to follow, but the challenge was building a working mousetrap car. For Summer, the challenge was “a little” difficult, but worth the effort.