BSS students make robots out of Legos

Class lets students have hands-on experience to learn about physics, machines, and programming

(SAVANNAH) May 14, 2010 – Robots have taken over the Blessed Sacrament School media center, but it’s not a science fiction plot – it’s a hands-on technology mini-course where the kids learn to build and program robots from a Lego kit.
“You actually get to create something and make it move, spin, go diagonal and do a lot of stuff,” BSS middle-schooler Ivan Jones said. “It’s a lot better than just reading about it – you get to do it.” The students used motion, sound, touch and light sensors and programmed the robots to do multiple tasks.
Blessed Sacrament technology coordinator Anna Kaluzne has been amazed by how quickly the students build their skills and learn in the class.
"Students use highest order of thinking skills to arrange and assemble using Lego Robotic Kits " she said. "The children get to pursue science and robotics in a kid-friendly environment." The school offers the mini-course twice a year, and this is the second year for the course.
“It’s fun to learn about technology and all that,” said BSS middle schooler Kaelan Lutz. “It’s fun to watch what you make move. You can program it to make it do pretty much anything – we programmed ours to swing a little club and hit a ball. It hits it about a foot, then rolls some more.”
BSS IT specialist Colin McDonald, who co-teaches the class with Kaluzne, said the students have learned teamwork skills building the robots together. They’ve also learned about physics, simple machines, inputs and outputs, interfacing with the robots and programming them.
“It gives you a hands-on experience of a lot of the things they learn in class,” McDonald said.
Blessed Sacrament School was founded in 1939 with two classrooms and three sisters of Mercy as the first faculty. Today there are two sections of each grade level from Pre-K through 8th grades with a current enrollment of approximately 425 students. The school offers a rigorous, faith-based academic program and maintains small class sizes. Blessed Sacrament is part of the Catholic Diocese of Savannah and has received accreditation by both SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) and FCC (Florida Catholic Conference).

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