The students are now teachers in a successful robotics program at two Lake County schools.
Students from Carver Middle School and Leesburg High School, led by teacher Bart Nash, will be involved in a workshop on Saturday to show teachers and students from 10 Orange County schools how to build robots and start up a program of their own.
The Carver and Leesburg High track records in competition have made Nash's program a model for others.
"You could definitely say so. We've had a lot of success over the last couple years, and a lot of schools want to know how to get started and how to teach kids,'' he said.
Nash is in his third year at Carver. He previously started a robotics program at East Ridge Middle School in Clermont. The program at Carver started as an after-school club, but this is the first school year that robotics is being offered as a class there.
In explaining the popularity of robotics, Nash said: "Taking a real-world, hands-on approach with kids. They take a problem presented to them and do something completely different than anything else they do in class.
"They create their own answer -- it may be right or wrong -- to the solution and test it out,'' he added.
After some of Nash's students moved on to Leesburg High, they couldn't find anyone to start a robotics program there, so they came back to ask Nash to start one.
"I said yeah, as long as they came back to mentor my middle-school students,'' Nash said, and now there is a Carver-Leesburg pipeline with the older students helping the younger ones.
The cooperation has paid off. Four teams from Carver and one from Leesburg High were among 24 teams from around the state that competed at a VEX Robotics qualifying event at Carver on Oct. 22. VEX Robotics is a competitive programfor middle schools, high schools and colleges around the world. Students strategically execute the game Gateway by driving robots they designed, built and programmed from the ground up using the VEX Robotics Design System.
Carver finished fourth overall, and Leesburg High finished sixth. Carver teams also picked up awards for design, innovation and programming skills, and Leesburg's efforts were recognized with the Judges' Award.
Nash's efforts are also being recognized. Schools Superintendent Susan Moxley praised his work at a recent School Board meeting
"He has been very instrumental,'' Moxley said. "You talk about a dynamic, passionate individual on robotics and engineering, and turning on our young people to science and engineering and technology. He has invested a lot of time and energy and his own resources into getting robotics started at Carver Middle School.''
Now Nash's students will be guiding peers from Orange County, as well as some home-school students who plan to start a team in Lake County, Nash said. He said that one or two of the Orange County schools have received a startup grant through a business.
Nash said the key to success ultimately has been the hard work of his students.
"They put in a lot of hours, anytime on Saturdays, before school, after school,'' he said. "They're knocking down the door to get there.''
Kudos to Lake County Schools for recognizing these programs. We need alternatives other than sports, band, etc. to keep young people learning and growing. I've seen these programs grow tremendously in my State, and I wish you much success!
Robotics with Bart Nash (by: Terry & Sharon O'Dell, Elkhart, Indiana - 10/28/2011)
Great story on Robotics and the student involvement. We are Bart Nash's grandparents and he continues to amaze us. We are very proud of him.
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