York Robothon continues into its second week. Under the guidance of York Exponential’s Daniel Heckert and Freelance York’s Daniel Kemper the kids have so far learned about the basics of robotics and computer programming (click here for last week’s review!) and are now ready to begin putting those lessons to good use.
The Projects
On Monday the kids were broken up into three different teams, each of which will work with a member of the community to use robotics to help overcome a real world challenge. The kids will work on these projects for the next three weeks before culminating in a capstone event on August 2.
The week started with some issues self motivating and self directing but that went away by the end of the week as they dove into their projects. Team One is tasked with creating an Escape Room Puzzle for an employee of Escape Games Live. Team Two is working with a client who creates and sells beauty products like body butter and face cream. Team Three is doing work for a local artist to have a robot assist in creating works of art.
Guests
We had one guest speaker come in this week, Joe DeStefano who is a business analyst and strategic management professional. He was very insightful and really connected well with the kids, especially one of our freshmen who he really connected with by speaking to what is really going on in her life. Robothon is about more than just robotics!
Community Service
We had planned on performing some community service on Friday at Asbury UMC but we cancelled that due to the excessive heat. It was unfortunate but the safety of the kids comes first and foremost.
Of course we would also like to thank our sponsors, York Exponential, the Fortress Initiative, Freelance York, the Fortress Academy, Nicely Done Sites and the York YMCA as well as Asbury United Methodist Church for hosting us. This would not have been possible without any of these groups and sponsorship opportunities are still available. If you are interested in getting on board contact Daniel Heckert.