The Firebirds Robotic team from the Mount St. Joseph’s Academy demonstrated their robotic skills at the Free Library of the Springfield Township on Tuesday. The robots designed by the team scooted across the room, lifted items and kindled a lot of interest and enthusiasm in the onlookers.
Fast Forward, a robot designed and built by the Mount St. Joseph Academy Firebirds, demonstrates its lifting abilities Tuesday at the Free Library of Springfield Township
The team brought all the necessary equipment to the library in order to generate interest in science, mathematics and engineering among children. The program coordinator of the Firebirds team, Brendan Burke, mentioned that one of the team’s missions is to inspire students to take up technology; this was an effort to fulfil the mission.
The first event was a scavenger hunt, where the children paired up with Firebirds to hunt for different robot parts. The groups ran around the library checking each robot for missing parts and consulting with team members about their queries related to robots. Burke explained that the robotic team received a bag containing robot parts before the competition and the girls did the wiring and designing of the parts. The team designed four different robots, named, Flash Forwards, TinMan, FireDuck and Jack Jack. Each of these robots was designed for specific purposes and has competed in different challenges. One of the team members stated that they had six weeks for building a robot for a competition. The team is required to program each and every move of the robot and be able to control the robot’s movement. After completing the scavenger hunt at the Library, the team demonstrated these moves. The JackJack robot was able to kick a soccer ball across the room, while Flash Forward picked up the inflatable inner tubes and extend them above the students. Some of the children enthusiastically tried to control the robots after the robotic team completed their demonstration.