Younger Students Learn about Robotics

Robotics is not just for high school students according to Bruce Babin, the robotics instructor at Highland Park High School. Babin is in his first year teaching robotics at HPHS. He knows that younger students are interested, that’s why he recently visited with some 5th grade students in the elementary gifted education program. Babin brought a couple of robotics program simulators for the kids to try out. He told them, “This isn’t a robot that rolls on the floor, beeps and turns on lights. These robots weld things, put together complicated circuit cards and paint something.” He talked about what he teaches in his high school class and how his students learn to program the robots. The younger kids can identify with that since they have been studying robots and have used a computer to program lego robots. The youngsters had all kinds of interesting questions for Babin about robots. He has visited several schools this year talking about the robotics program at Highland Park High School.