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Robots make creative school work

For the first year, Battle Lake students have the opportunity to apply math and science concepts in a new robotics course.

Students, ranging from freshmen to seniors, made the move to enroll in the class to break from the daily grind of textbooks and exams.

“It sounded fun; the idea of getting creative with school work,” said student Aaron Burton.

Rather than testing, students are challenged to not only learn how a robot works, but put their knowledge to the test by creating a robot capable of performing a set of tasks.

Throughout the semester, students learn the concepts of belt, gear and chain drive systems. After learning how to apply such functions, students are now working in small groups to create a robot they feel will best perform a number of tasks. Students also become familiar with concepts such as numatics and hydraulics, commonly explored in the world of engineering.

Currently, students are gearing up for a competition which would pit one robot against another. The game challenges robots to scoop up ping-pong size balls and drop them into a 10-inch diameter circle in the middle of the playing field.

The competitive nature of the course inspires students to outwit one another, which gives an extra incentive for students.

Considering students are varied in terms of math and science backgrounds, each student has a unique talent to bring to the table.

“It’s fun to try it all together,” said student Shelby Trosdahl.

Trosdahl, like other students in the course, says he enjoys the mathematics aspects of the course — something he’s never before been too excited about.

That’s inspiring for teacher Tom Leuthner, who has seen students stretch beyond their zone of comfort to get the job done.

“If you want to do a real world project, there’s real world math,” Leuthner said.

Leuthner discovered the curriculum for the course while attending a conference in St. Cloud designed for high school technology teachers. The purchase was funded through a Perkins Grant through Lake Country Service Cooperative.