By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The Westwood High School Robotics Team (FRC Team 1757) traveled to the Westwood Public Library (WPL) this past Friday, January 5th to teach a class to local 3rd-5th graders. This class was geared towards all things science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM).
Little ones packed the Children’s Programming Room, excited to work on the special craft the Westwood Robotics Team brought in for them. Before officially starting the program, the team went around and introduced themselves, as well as told everyone what their favorite ice cream flavor is. To get everyone acquainted with one another, the children then went around and did the same thing, mentioning an array of delicious ice cream flavors that are their favorites.
It was then time to start the brief presentation before getting into the craft. Team 1757 presented on STEAM, asking the kiddos what they thought it meant. All in attendance of this program were extremely smart and knew exactly what it stood for, truly impressing this Robotics Team.
The next questions Team 1757 asked the kiddos was if they could come up with some examples of STEAM in their everyday lives and why it is important to incorporate in our world today. Everyone came up with some great ideas, including answers like video games, electrical outlets, construction/buildings, and more.
The craft for today’s class was building their own parachutes to show how physics and different forces work. Just before starting this craft, Team 1757 discussed the aspect of physics as well as showed a short Youtube video on how gravity changes with and without air molecules. When air molecules are taken out of a room, a bowling ball and a feather will both drop at the same time. Seeing this happen on the screen led the kiddos to be absolutely shocked with this new discovery and eager to make their own crafts.
Each attendee received a pipe cleaner, a thin piece of plastic, four pieces of string, and a wooden bead. Team 1757 demonstrated how they would create their ‘person’ by putting the bead and pipe cleaner together. They then attached the four pieces of string to the piece of plastic by tying them together, and additionally tied the pipe cleaner person to all four strings at the bottom. Once each parachute was completed, they conducted a friendly competition to see who would land the slowest or the fastest.
This presentation and craft was a huge hit with these 3rd-5th graders and definitely got them extremely interested in STEAM. The Westwood Robotics Team has a series of classes they conduct at the library. For more information, please visit the WPL’s website at www.westwoodlibrary.org.
