High School Robotics Projects

Encouraging high school student to create great engineering and science projects should be an administration's top priority. Technology and scientific discoveries are nearly occurring every few months. As soon as one technology discovery makes its way to consumers, another, more advanced one comes along and takes its place. High school student who are involved in designing robotic projects will most likely come to appreciate the field of science and technology.

High school robotic projects are not done in isolation. Students are introduced to planning and teamwork and will likely discover that robotic projects will require time and patience to complete. Many will learn that communication is the key to advancement in the project. The student will need to interact with established engineers and scientist in addition to project advisers, teachers, other students and even parents.

High school students are given the opportunity to choose among a variety of robotics projects, including control and automation projects, machine vision projects, and autonomous robot projects and experiments. Control and automation projects allow students to perform such activities constructing voice-controlled robots. Machine vision projects offer students the opportunity to use optical image acquisition devices to identify and count objects. Autonomous robot projects allow students to write and design the hardware required to solve such challenges as Rubik's cubes.

To complete a high school robotics project, students may receive an assortment of tools, including mechanical kits, motor boards and power boards. These kits help students get started by providing many mechanical and structural parts needed for building and controlling the robot. Students are also taught to install codes using memory sticks. The motor board allows students to control the robot's motor, whereas the power board is used to control the robot's code as well as the other boards.

The educational value and the positive long-term influence of high school robotics on the students makes the projects extremely important. Working on robotic projects will teach students how to deal with challenge, which includes planning and researching, designing experiments, selecting materials and equipment, making calculations and giving presentation regarding the results. Students are given insight into the real world of science and engineering.

The activity of preparing robotics projects for science fairs is one of the best methods of learning about science and engineering. According to the National Research Council, the absence of active learning in the classroom is evidenced by the lack of interest in the fields of engineering and science. Studies show that up to 4 percent of students who participate in science fair competitions eventually move on to major competitions, such as the Intel international Science and Engineering Fair.