K-12 Robotics Outreach

A hands-on introduction-to-robotics workshop for elementary students.

We held an introduction to robotics workshop at Andres Bonifacio Elementary School (ABES), a local public school working to strengthen its STEM program. The workshop was requested by a teacher from ABES, and drew about 50 students from 4th to 6th grade.

I worked with my school’s robotics club to gather resources and volunteers. With only two weeks to organize everything, we still pulled it together, and every student left with something to show for it.

This workshop is part of a broader pattern of outreach and teaching, including a mechanical-linkages class for MIT’s ESP Splash program and a robotics workshop-competition at my high school.

Day-of preparations

We preassembled all of our 11 kits so that the students can get a headstart and focus on programming. We also made a simple sumobot arena by placing electrical tape on the back of a tarpaulin.

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Introduction to the EV3 kit

We kicked off the workshop was a brief exploration on the various parts found in an EV3 kit, such as motors, sensors, wheels, beams, etc. The goal was to familiarize the students with the parts and their functions.

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Introduction to programming

Afterwards, we transitioned to learning how to make the robots move. EV3 kits come with proprietary software that simplifies the process by allowing users to drag and drop blocks. We went through the different types of blocks and tried some exercises. We covered sensor inputs, motor control, conditional flow, and more.

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Teaching session

I presented all of these in front of the packed AV room. The students were divided into tables of 3-6, so we assigned a mentor to each group to help answer any questions they had along the way.

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Sumobot challenge

Finally, we wrapped up the workshop with a friendly competition: the classic sumobot. We asked the students to program their robots on their own and gave them the freedom to modify their robots however they wanted. I ended up “hosting” this tournament, which was a ton of fun!

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