FEP Kids Bring Robots to Life

Thirteen children enrolled in the Friends Enrichment Program (FEP) of Moorestown Friends Meeting trooped into science and robotics teacher Timothy Clarke’s classroom at recently. Quietly, they sat at eight different workstations, each equipped with a computer that displayed diagrammatically each step involved in the making of a motorized vehicle made of Lego parts.  

Step-by-step, children 8 and up began assembling their robots. Assisting them were four student members of the Upper School robotics team and four FEP volunteers, all working under Clarke’s direction. For two hours, the children remained engrossed in building robots. Back and forth, they moved from their individual stations to the large plastic containers, where they had to search for the part they needed, then bring it back to their station and fit it in the exact spot where it was supposed to go.

It was a challenging task. To build robots that worked, the children had to be observant, patient and persistent. Their efforts were rewarded.

By the end of the session, there were eight finished products—eight new vehicles that were tested and found to be fully operable. For the young builders, it was a moment of triumph.
 
On March 18, the same children will return to Clarke’s classroom for a second robotics workshop, during which they will build upon the skills they already acquired.   

The proximity of Moorestown Friends School, the close relationship between the school and Friends Meeting, funds raised by the school to provide robotics equipment for outreach work, and a grant from the Friends Council on Education together made it possible for FEP to include robotics in its program.

The school’s robotics program has been in existence since the fall of 2007, and the outreach kicked into gear in the spring of 2008. In the last few years, the robotics students have completed over 3,500 hours of outreach work in Moorestown, Camden, Philadelphia, and other communities.  

A short video of the first FEP robotics workshop will be shown at the , which will be held from 5-7 p.m. Sunday, March 11, in the .

- Provided by Monique Begg