Robots take over LPSD office as Lloydminster students battle it out in STEM challenge

For a couple hours on Friday morning, the robots held sway at the Lloydminster Public School Division (LPSD) office as the annual Robotics Challenge was underway. 

Bishop Lloyd Middle School and College Park teams from grades 6 and 7 have been working through the STEM program and doing coding and building the robots for the school contest. 

Grade 7 College Park student, Bentley Acorn has been building robots for two years and shares the biggest challenge of the day’s contest. 

“Probably stacking the cones on the pads, because they are already stacked in different colours,” says Bentley. 

There are six teams with about three or four members. The contest involved a robot race around the office and the skills contest where the robots had to stack cones. 

Education technology coordinator, Cornelius Krahn, says next year they are hoping to expand the program to grade 8. He is thankful for the input of Cenovus Cares. 

“They offer volunteers who are giving of their time, which is fantastic. They also bring a nice donation for the program. We use those funds to grow the program and buy more robots so that more schools can participate,” says Krahn. 

He explains that last year, the robots were built in about three to four hours, but this year it took about eight hours. 

“It was definitely a more advanced robot. We start with a simple robot which takes less than half-an-hour to build. We disassemble that. We do the next one which includes a claw so that takes a little bit longer. We disassemble that one and build another which has a claw on an arm that lifts the claw up and down,” says Krahn. 

That robot is taken apart again and then reassembled to the final product which is being used to stack cones like a forklift would be doing in a warehouse. 

“It gives them a lot more experience building the thing and solving problems. So, by the time they get to build that more complicated one, they are confident and able to build it quicker and more efficiently.” 

The students learn communication skills as they work as a team to build their robots, explains Krahn. 

“There is attention to detail, teamwork skills and they are using those robots which they have added some embellishments to make it their own.”

The robotic mid-morning takeover at the LPSD office gave the staff and supporters a solid platform to view the progress that the students have made in putting their STEM knowledge to the test.

You may view a video of the cone stacking action: