New Town Students Build Robots

School may have officially ended for most kids in the area, but summer school has startedand so t...  More »

School may have officially ended for most kids in the area, but summer school has startedand so too have special workshops designed to draw kids back to the classroom on their own free will. One such program took place at Fort Berthold Community College this last week. Thanks to the NASA to Fort Berthold Grant, the college was able to open a special robotics workshop to enhance education in the field of science for both students and teachers. Anna Rubia works at the school, and helped organize the session. (Anna Rubia) Robotics is something that's exciting for students as well as teachers, because they can use that in their classrooms in the fall. So it's just a wonderful opportunity in the summer to learn about this. The school brought two science teachers from Hatton and Northwood to help lead their participants. Mike Voglewede and David Hedland have been helping students build robots for several years now, and say they're always willing to share their knowledge. And what's even betterthey say these kids may technically be taking a science class in the summer, but because the workshops are so laid back, they don't necessarily realize they're learning. (Mike Voglewede, Northwood Science Teacher) They don't know it, but they're learning. And they're not only learning science and technology and engineering skills, but they're learning lifelong skills. Even if they don't go into science and engineering fields, they're learning things like deadlines and hard work and perseverance. (David Hedland, Hatton Science Teacher) There's a lot of innovation that comes into this, thinking in a very specific wayin more of a scientific way than maybe they do in a normal setting. Where, with the robot, now you have toespecially with the game, having to make that robot do a specific thingyou have to think outside the box a little. And the fun isn't over yet. The kids will continue to work on their projects, and their instructors will return to see how the robots fare in competition in mid-July.  « Less