American Robotics Academy Course Descriptions 2023-2024
Our mission at American Robotics Academy® is to excite, inspire, and motivate young people about the fun, importance and impact of robotics technology in today's world including STEM/STEAM curriculum. We hope to stimulate their imagination and creativity by encouraging them to explore, experience, and express themselves through our hands-on interactive robotics program. Held in a friendly, sports-like atmosphere, we focus on team building, problem solving, creativity and fun. Students will be working with the widely known and popular plastic LEGO building blocks, including the more specialized pieces such as axles, gears, beams, wheels, motors, microcomputers, pneumatics and other parts that will enable them to safely create animated and exciting mechanical movements and other effects. The LEGO Technic System has been adopted as the standard material for robotic designers, because of their sophisticated and powerful set of mechanical design components. The fact that they can be disassembled and reconfigured as necessary is essential in testing, design, and instruction. We also include learning skills and experiences with:
Diversity: As young children enter their first years of school, they’ll get to know peers with a wide variety of abilities, cultures, languages, and backgrounds. It’s totally natural for them to notice similarities and differences and express curiosity, and it’s up to the grownups in their lives to not only model acceptance of diversity, but to frame it as a strength.
Boost Self-Esteem: Build children’s cultural identity and boost self-esteem by giving them chances to share their strengths with the class. Begin by talking with your class about how important it is to help other people feel good about themselves. Emphasize how scary it can be to feel like you are different from other people, and how brave it is to share things that are unique about yourself or your family.
Social Competency:Children who participate in teamwork building activities inside and outside of the classroom develop a greater sense of social competency because they learn to correctly interpret and respond to their peers' needs. Not only are children learning to work as a team, they're learning to actively listen and respond in a way that makes the group effort more effective.
Collaboration: Teaching children to work with each other to complete a task. It involves co-operation and teamwork and the sharing of ideas, knowledge and skills to reach the same objective. The objective is usually creative in nature. Most collaboration needs leadership or some kind.
Literacy: Children in our classes will be required to read LEGO curriculum in order to create their robots. We encourage the students to read and understand all instructions, part lists, and competition guidelines.
Numeracy: In order to understand Robotics, we begin with basic counting skills. Student will be required to understand what particular parts are based upon their size, which is calculated by counting the lengths and widths. Our next instructional method is teaching gear ratios and calculations for multiplication and division. When we teach the children about torque, additional and subtraction is needed in the calculations.
Imagineers in Gear (IIG) (Grades PreK - 1st)
Let your imagination and ideas take you wherever you want to go!
You will learn engineering key concepts and fundamentals building with LEGO elements from the creative tool kit. Learning as we go numeracy, literacy and much more. Students will be challenged to use LEGO pieces to create a structure or setting using LEGO elements. Students will engage with hands-on experience including fun and problem-solving activities and be encouraged to tell a story about their creations. Your student will be offered special pieces for their builds to complete their story. Students will learn to identify build pieces and their function required to build structures towards the next step into Robotics. This program offers STEM-STEAM curriculum as well diversity, self-esteem, social competency, collaboration and more. Concepts and core values are taught to prepare students for life challenges.
Fun Frenzy Robotics 1-2-3 (FFR) Grade(s) 1st - 2nd
Students will be introduced in the first 5 weeks basic engineering concepts and create simple builds in weeks 6-14. LEGO Technic pieces that come together to create movable, steerable, controlled robots.
Students will engage in a group four with assigned roles that rotate weekly.
Students are encouraged to work as a team and explore the use of motors, gears, pulleys, and IR technology while building Lego Robot inventions. Each build will be followed by a thrilling challenge that illustrates the need for “simplicity” and the pitfalls of “complexity”. Students will be provided with a creative tool kit to design their bots!
Robots Rule! (RR) Grade(s) 2nd – 3rd
Students will be introduced in the first 5 weeks basic engineering concepts and create simple builds in weeks 6-14. LEGO Technic pieces that come together to create movable, steerable, controlled robots.
Students will engage in a group four with assigned roles that rotate weekly.
To become a master builder students must conquer the concepts of robotics. Learn the basic mechanical properties of how things work and move through a hands-on learning experience. Students will explore the use of gears, pulleys, wheels and axles, motors and so much more. This class will open new windows, leading to the fun and mechanical world of robotics. You will work in teams to create extraordinary builds. This camp will introduce to why a robot needs power transferred to its wheels from a power source located a distance away; in addition, the direction of the motion needs to be reversed so the robot will go forward instead of backward. Begin your journey in becoming a Master Builder! Students will be provided with a creative tool kit to design their bots!
Robo-Code (RC) 3rd 6th Grades
Let the journey begin by combining robotics and coding in one workshop. Now is the time to explore and battle in uncharted territory. In this class, battle-bots evaluate the potential of a rough and dangerous area before moving in to save a Bot! Experts need you to build a variety of unique robots with an awesome skillset, capable of driving over any obstacle and overcoming any unfamiliar elements or elevation changes in this treacherous landscape. Students will use gears, create structural integrity, and IR Technology to overcome the unknown. Can your robot not only survive, but thrive in the bot-battle? The coding workshop allows students to use Sphero, a programmable 8x8 LED matrix, so students can code it to change colors when Sphero rolls, stops or starts, reaches a goal, or whenever else they’d like. Coding sounds hard, but our younger coders utilize what’s called block coding. This means they’re not typing out code by hand—which can be complicated for such an age group—but rather dragging visual blocks into the coding area and connecting them.
Wild and Wacky Robot Walkers (WWRW) Grade(s) 3rd-5th
Join with us as we use gears and pulleys to build and battle a world of WALKING robots! This class will introduce your student to LEGO mechanics and simple machines that you never knew were possible! Join with us as we use gears and pulleys to build and battle a world of WALKING robots! This class will introduce you to LEGO mechanics and simple machines that you never knew were possible! Students will be introduced in the first 5 weeks basic engineering concepts and create simple builds in weeks 6-14. LEGO Technic pieces that come together to create movable, steerable, controlled robots.
Students will engage in a group four with assigned roles that rotate weekly.
Come learn, build and play with American Robotics Academy… Where Robots Rule! Students will be provided with a creative tool kit to design their bots Here’s your chance to be wilder and wackier than you have ever imagined. We will be doing lots of new projects including climbing robots and robot dogs with animated eyes, mouth and tails! You can add more modifications to all your builds for a superb, animated effect.!
Bricks Slayers Robotics (BSR) Grade(s) 3rd-5th
Join us on an adventure that requires creative thought, time management and team communication as groups build a diverse range of off-road vehicles in challenging activities with other bots! Students will be introduced in the first 5 weeks basic engineering concepts and create simple builds in weeks 6-14. LEGO Technic pieces that come together to create movable, steerable, controlled robots.
Students will engage in a group four with assigned roles that rotate weekly.
Legos and apply different gear ratios that will enable them to modify bots to race against the clock and play tug of war! This class will discuss drive gears and the various ranges of gear ratios. Here is your chance to learn which gear ratios are associated with speed or torque. Slay other bots in challenges with quirky modifications.
Ultimate Robotics Experience (URE) Grade(s) 3rd - 5th
Now is the time to explore and battle in uncharted territory. In this class, battle-bots evaluate the potential of a rough and dangerous area before moving in to save a Bot! Experts need you to build a variety of unique robots with an awesome skillset, capable of driving over any obstacle and overcoming any unfamiliar elements or elevation changes in this treacherous landscape. Students will use gears, create structural integrity, and IR Technology to overcome the unknown. Can your robot not only survive, but thrive in the bot-battle?
Students will be introduced in the first 5 weeks basic engineering concepts and create simple builds in weeks 6-14. LEGO Technic pieces that come together to create movable, steerable, controlled robots.
Students will engage in a group four with assigned roles that rotate weekly.
Build a Bot! (BAB) Grade(s) 3rd - 5th
Students will follow design instructions and build a bot to compete with their teammates. Students will participate in challenging competition with their teammates to test their robot’s structural integrity and maneuverability.
Students will be introduced in the first 5 weeks basic engineering concepts and create simple builds in weeks 6-14. LEGO Technic pieces that come together to create movable, steerable, controlled robots.
Students will engage in a group four with assigned roles that rotate weekly.
Your student will learn about gears, pulleys, and varying degrees of traction, and will build a robot. Students will be provided with a creative tool kit to design their bots!
Master Builders Robotastic Adventure (MBRA) Grade(s) 4th-6th
Do you know any Master Builders with reverse engineering skills? Students will learn in camp that reverse engineering, also called back engineering, is the process by which a man-made object is deconstructed to reveal its designs, architecture, or to extract knowledge from the object. Camp Instructors will engage students in understanding reverse engineering is the process of taking something apart to understand how it works. The process allows junior engineers to create new Lego Bots and modify their Bots to have more power, torque and speed. Students will explore the different ways to make Bots move, vibrate and dance if they want to! Students learn to think backward in reverse! Students will be provided with a creative tool kit to design their bots!
Students will be introduced in the first 5 weeks basic engineering concepts and create simple builds in weeks 6-14.
LEGO Technic pieces that come together to create movable, steerable, controlled robots.
Students will engage in a group four with assigned roles that rotate weekly.
Magical MicoBOT! (MM) 2nd-12th grade
What is MicroBlocks?
Microblocks is a scratch like blocks programming language for learning physical computing with education microcontroller boards. User-friendly drag and drop access.
Live programming- While there are other blocks languages for microcontrollers, what really sets MicroBlocks apart is its combination of live programming and autonomous operation. Other blocks languages support one or the other of those features but not both.
Code SpHERO Coding – Crazy for Coding (CFC) Grade(s) 3rd -6th
What is Sphero and how does it work? Sphero is an adorable, durable, interactive—you guessed it—spherebot. Don’t let its size deceive you! Its functionality is almost boundless. Let’s dig in. Students connect to provided tablets via Bluetooth, and dive into programming on day one! With a maze activity, kids learn to program their 'bots to navigate a maze—without touching the walls. Students will use the Sphero has a programmable 8x8 LED matrix, so students can code it to change colors when Sphero rolls, stops or starts, reaches a goal, or whenever else they’d like. Coding sounds hard, but our younger coders utilize what’s called block coding. This means they’re not typing out code by hand—which can be complicated for such an age group—but rather dragging visual blocks into the coding area and connecting them.
We've added some new classes that we think you will really enjoy and mixed them around each month to give everybody a better chance at finding the class they want to take that will fit into their "crazy" schedule. We've intentionally designed the classes so you can take a "full day" of robotics if you want. The morning classes and afternoon classes complement each other or if you just want to come a half day, there's something for everyone out there.
If you would like to see our classes offered at your school, as an after-school program, call me and we can talk about how to make that happen. We have done this very successfully at many schools over the years.
Looking forward to seeing you back, working on something "weird and crazy" in one of our classes.