Emily Porter, 12 shows a simple machine her team designed as part of a robotics competition held at Allen Park Middle School last Saturday.
‘They learn to work with other kids,
they learn about
professionalism. That’s more
important to get out of it than winning awards.’— Mike Porter
group leader
By ANDREA POTEET
Sunday Times Newspapers
ALLEN PARK– The interests of most boys Alex Rinna’s age have moved beyond Legos to things like sports and video games.
But for Rinna, 14, and the other seven members of the Lego Robotics team, assembling robots from specially designed building blocks is more than child’s play.
Using a programmable line of the toys, the team came in eighth place in a robotics competition held at Allen Park Middle School Nov. 13 after building a robot they named Smarticle Particle and maneuvering it through an obstacle course. Fifteen teams from the area also competed at the school, where Rinna attends with classmates Emily Porter, 12, Joey Wojnar, 12, and Jonathan Leigh, 12. Porter’s 9-year-old sister, Maggie, a student at Lindemann Elementary School in Allen Park, Thomas Miles, who attends Gerisch Middle School in Southgate, and St. Frances Cabrini Middle School students. Wyatt and Jeremiah Kastl make up the rest of the team, which also won a programming award during the competition for a robotic arm they built.
The arm was inspired by the competition’s theme, “Body Forward,” which focused on advancements in biomedical research.
The students said they wanted to design a machine that helped wounded war veterans.
“As we were thinking about it, we thought it would be a great way to show how robotic arms help people in real life,” team member Alex Rinna said.
In preparing the device, members first researched human body systems such as the circulatory and nervous systems to see how an arm interacts with them and how their design could improve upon a human arm, said Mike Porter, who oversees the group in which his daughters, Emily and Maggie, compete.
“The kids were interested in the degree of freedom of it and how it resembled a normal arm,” Mike Porter said. “Their thought was that if it didn’t have to be exactly like a normal arm, how could it be improved?”
For people with disabilities, they designed an optional gripper with extended reach, which allows those sitting in a wheelchair to easily grab objects.
The group begins preparing for the competition each year in early September, and meets about three times a week at the Porters’ home to work on the projects before the competition each November. As the competition nears, the meetings happen almost every day, as the students scramble to put the finishing touches on their projects.
Through the competition, the students say they have learned skills they hope to transfer to careers in the programming and science fields.
In addition to broadening their career horizons, the competitions also teach the children valuable life skills, Mike Porter said.
“It promotes cooperation,” he said. “They learn to work with other kids, they learn about professionalism. That’s more important to get out of it than winning awards.”
Rinna said his three-year involvement with the club has taught him valuable lessons about teamwork.
“We’ve had a lot of experiences that have not been the best,” he said. “But it teaches you how to work with people that you normally wouldn’t be around.”
(Contact Andrea Poteet at [email protected])