Kids learn valuable skills while building Lego robots

The 4H LiveWire Robotics team is holding its summer camp for kids this week at Idaho State University.

Wednesday was the robotics competition where kids got to put the skills they learned to the test.

The summer camp is a week long and is for kids ages 8 to 12. Kids get to work with members of the LiveWire Robotics team to learn about and build robots.

“We have them working with individual Lego kits,” said Steven Kaiser, a member of LiveWire. “This comes with a brain and all these different motors and sensors and what they do is they build their own robot as a team and they program it using a programming language we taught them during the camp.”

The robots had to be programmed to perform a specific task. That task was to carry and dump ping-pong balls onto a tabletop, while getting around other objects. The more ping-pong balls, the more points.

Kaiser said the kids learn a lot of skills doing this camp. They learn about sensors, programming and design. Kaiser said they also learn to work together.

“One thing I would say the kids get out of this a lot is a sense of ‘coopertition,’ which is a combination of cooperation and competition,” he said.

Kids learn to work as a team, which LiveWire said is important. It’s also a good way for those who are a little bit shy to make friends.

Kids at the camp all seemed to have a blast.

“I think it’s really, really fun and exciting,” said Danielle Haderlie.

“I had a lot of fun and how much was, well, I just had a lot of fun,” said Rial Owens.

“I’ve had a lot of fun, I like building the robots,” said Maddox Moore. “I was really excited to do the competition, even though my team didn’t do all that great.”

“It was a lot of fun and I learned this whole week that you can’t build a Lego robot without all the right parts or it doesn’t work,” said Liam McGee. “I’m really glad I came.”

LiveWire will be holding another summer camp July 12 – 14 in Blackfoot. There are two different camps offered. One is a 1.0 class, which is for beginners. The other is a 2.0 class, which is for those who already know the basics of building robots.

For more information on the camp, visit LiveWire’s website.