Hazelwood Fifth-Graders Get Head Start on Robotics At GALACTIC Camp

Posted by Marco Webster
August 29, 2011

Parents and other family members gather around a robotics practice field as they watch Hazelwood fifth-grade students demonstrate what their robots can do during a four-day robotics camp at GALACTIC. Also observing the activity is Mara Berry, background center, the District’s director of gifted education. The camp allowed students to cover robotic basics to prepare them for the 2011-2012 robotics season. Qualifying competitions start in November and culminate with the FLL World Festival at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis next April. Hazelwood School District

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Parents and other family members gather around a robotics practice field as they watch Hazelwood fifth-grade students demonstrate what their robots can do during a four-day robotics camp at GALACTIC. Also observing the activity is Mara Berry, background center, the District’s director of gifted education. The camp allowed students to cover robotic basics to prepare them for the 2011-2012 robotics season. Qualifying competitions start in November and culminate with the FLL World Festival at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis next April.

Credit Hazelwood School District

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Eighteen Hazelwood School District fifth-grade students participated in a robotics camp just before the start of the school year.

Held at the district’s gifted education, or GALACTIC, center, the four-day, half-day camp allowed students to prepare for this year’s For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Lego League, or FLL, competitions.

“It teaches them the basics of robotics so when the competition is announced this year, they are all ready to go instead of having to learn about robotics first,” said Mike Beck, one of the GALACTIC teachers and a robotics sponsor in a statement. “We have a great group of students this year and there was enough student interest that we had to take applications.”

The 2011 FLL challenge begins in early September with Food Factor. Teams will explore the topic of food safety, examine possible points of contamination that food encounters then find ways to prevent or combat these contaminants.

St. Louis FLL qualifying competitions will take place in November, with winners moving on to the championship event December 4 at St. Louis Community College-Florissant Valley. Champion’s Awards team members may then participate in the FLL World Festival in April 2012 as part of the overall robotics championships at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

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