Oak Park Introduces a New Robotics Program
The days of using LEGOs for instruction of advanced robotics students may be
numbered in middle and high schools! Oak Park Middle School is leading the way
with a new advanced robotics effort for the 6
th-8th grade Talented and Gifted (TAG) program. All of it was made possible through a recent collaboration
between Dr. Robin Gillespie of Oak Park and Dr. John D. Williams, a Decatur resident
and Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UAHuntsville. Dr.
Williams volunteered time, money, and graduate students to develop and teach a
series of custom lesson plans that introduce microcontroller driven robots using a C
based programming language and student assembled electronic circuits. The
concepts applied at Oak Park are very similar to college level projects but do not
include high temperature soldering of electronic circuit boards. Instead, students
are learning to build circuits on breadboards that they can modify over time as their
robot becomes more and more complex.
Over an eight-week period, students explored general concepts in robotics such as
the physics of a DC motor and how solar energy can be harnessed to power
electronics. They were then introduced to an Arduino electronic controller package
that is used to program and control an ATMEGA328 microcontroller. The class of
21 was then tasked to write programs that control light emitting diodes (LEDs),
light dependent resistors (LDRs), DC motors, servos, and various sensor and
actuator mechanisms that can all be controlled by their Arduino electronics board.
In conjunction with the programming effort, students worked in teams of three to
build their own robots using kits designed and purchased for Oak Park. Each
student demonstrated a basic understanding of the assembly and programing of DC
motor driven robots with active sensing and control mechanisms.
This is just the beginning of the partnership between UAH and the Oak Park TAG
program. In the spring, Dr. Williams will return to continue the robotics effort and
the mentoring of a Destination Imagination team involved with exploration of
propulsion systems. He will also assist Dr. Gillespie, Ms. Winton, and Ms. Millwood
with the expansion of the annual Oak Park Raft Race into the eighth-grade honors
science classes.
Drs. Williams and Gillespie would like to thank Nucor and local vendors, including
Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, and Metal Fastener Supply Company, for their help in
making this project possible.
