Lexington, KY - Second-, fourth- and fifth-grade students were so eager to join the new after-school club at Lexington's Glendover Elementary School that they lined up early, "like shoppers outside Wal-Mart on Black Friday," one teacher observed.
What could possibly stimulate students to be so enthusiastic about extending their education to after-school hours? Robots.
It may seem more like play than schoolwork, but there are valuable lessons being soaked up - designing, building, testing, teamwork, and problem solving, as well as math and computer skills.
The Glendover students are excited about WeDo Robotics, created by Lego Education, building everything from cars to animals to cranes to soccer players and then put them into motion.
"I've seen kids that have really come out of their shell and blossomed. It's amazing to see what building and working together can do for students," said Jan Lane, a first- and second-grade teacher at Glendover and a club monitor.
If a student wants a robot to travel ten feet, turn right and travel ten more feet into a big square and return to the starting position, first it must be programmed on the computer.
"There is software for it with all of the commands. Once they get everything tested and approved by me, they can move to the next task," Said Young Do Lee, a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Glendover.
Students use a USB cable to send the commands they selected from the computer to their robots. "If the robot isn't doing what they thought it would, they think about it, look at the software programming, make adjustments and go back and run it," said Lee.
Lane has noticed something a bit disturbing about today's students. She hopes the robotics club can help address it.
"I've noticed in the classroom in the last few years that kids are not solving problems. We as parents, and everybody else, are giving them the solutions. They aren't working together in teams. But in this club, if something doesn't work, then somewhere along the line, they didn't do something right in the programming or building, so they have to go back and figure it out."
Robots and children's learning is at the heart of a study done by the research company Lattitude. The study, titled "Robots @ School," focuses on how robots are helping to reveal a shift in kids' social and learning psychologies and the overlap between learning and play.
"Education and learning are moving - at least in many children's eyes - beyond acts of knowledge transmission toward acts of exploration and creation," explained Steve Mushkin, founder and president of Lattitude. Mushkin said robots and other intelligent technologies can unleash the expansive capabilities in children.
Another interesting observation from the study was that many children, unlike adults, tend to think of robots and technology as fundamentally human. Two-thirds of the kids in the study took for granted that robots could make excellent human friends.
Back at the Glendover Robotics Club, enthusiasm is high in kids from all backgrounds.
"You've got a good mix of kids - Hispanics, Asians and Caucasians. They all show a high interest and desire to learn," said teacher Lee. "If I had taught math lessons on degrees with other manipulatives, it might have been received differently. Add robots, and they're extremely excited."
Robotics activities are also being explored in Fayette County middle and high schools.
At the college level, students at various Kentucky universities are training in robotics to become the next generation of industrial engineers.
"We look at industrial robotics and how they can be applied to industrial processes or production lines," said Sam Mason, instructor of design manufacturing at Morehead State University. Mason teaches courses in the manufacturing processes on an industrial level.
"For manufacturing to stay competitive, robots bring an element of quality because products have to be 100 percent better than they are now," Mason said.
Some of the MSU students became interested in robots in high school. All want a strong future. "They want a job and to acquire the skill set to be competitive in this field," said Mason. "Manufacturing uses a lot of robotics, and so having that knowledge is the key to having a successful career."
Industrial robots perform a wide range of functions under the direction of a computer. One estimate pegs the number of robots in the world at a quarter million. Japan uses most of them. The United States is second.
Automobile plants immediately come to mind when it comes to robots. Toyota, Ford and GM use them at their assembly plants in Kentucky. They weld, paint, drill, sand, cut, move and install parts.
Robots are especially valuable in environments that are unsafe or physically difficult for humans. Robots can clean up radioactive areas, extinguish fires, disarm bombs, load and unload explosives and toxic chemicals and work underwater. SWAT teams use them in hostage situations. Our military uses unmanned drones to spy on or bomb enemy targets.
For future robotics experts, it all starts with basic curiosity and a fundamental understanding of how the machines function - both of which can be sparked in an elementary school classroom with a simple pile of Legos.