We took the kids to their first competition on Saturday. They weren’t quite ready to compete but they did have a good time and hopefully it inspired them to spend more of their own time working on a project outside of the club meetings.
Our biggest issue so far is them wanting to do more than their skills will allow them. So we talked to another club that have been together for 3 years and 6 spent the last 6 months (20 hours a week) working on the project they entered, which was a robotic arm with sensors that determined when the hand had gripped something and then lifted it up.
@ Gary - Are the children able to understand mechanics and electronics? What motivates them into robotics? Robotics = Mechatronics = Mechanical Eng. + Electronic Eng. + Software Eng. When I was their age, I was just trying to keep up with physics.
I’m really curios about your robotics club there. Our robotics club here just uses lego mindstorms.
@ Mr. John Smith - That is what most of the clubs here do, however with teaching them C# we are trying to show them that the fun they are having now can translate into real world jobs having the same fun.