Toole County 4-H Implements a Robotics Program

Published: 2020
By Alice Burchak

Robots are all around us. From the food we eat to the cars we drive, robots help make our lives easier, more efficient, and simply more fun! The field of robotics is expanding at a rapid pace. Toole County 4-H wanted to provide youth with the skills for a possible future career in this field. MSU Extension Agent Alice Burchak and Leader Barb Larsen applied and were awarded a grant for 3 Rivers Communications to start a 4-H Robotics Program. Two different youth groups met monthly during the 2019-2020 4-H year for the Robotics Program afterschool at the courthouse. Burchak facilitated the Cloverbud program using Lego's WeDo kits. Youth ages 5-8 received hands-on experience designing, building, and programming small robots. The youth started out with simple robots with changing color lights and finished up the year building Milo the Roving Robot, which moved backward and forward and picked up items. Barb Larsen facilitated the second group of youth who were in third to fifth grade and utilized the EV3 kits. At the start of the year, members were reading build plans for robots that utilized sensors, motors, and gears. After robots were built, youth learned how to program the robots to perform tasks. For the final project to exhibit at fair, youth designed, built and programmed the robots on their own.