DLCS junior hosts robotics camp to earn Eagle Award
Janel Shoun |
| Bryan Reasonover, on the left, learned the robotics trade this past October when David Lipscomb Campus School in the Music City BEST competition, held on the university campus. |
| Lipscomb's robot earned the most points for hanging and removing "laundry" from a clothesline. The robots built at Robotics Camp will also have a movable arm. |
| Just like the David Lipscomb Campus School team at BEST, campers at the Robotics Camp, July 9-13, will build their own robots and compete in an obstacle course. |
July 9-13
8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Lipscomb University Campus
- To register for Robotics Camp, click here to e-mail Bryan.
Bryan Reasonover, a junior at David Lipscomb High School, is coordinating the week-long camp for middle- and high-schoolers to earn his Eagle Scout designation and to pass on the fun he discovered last fall when he participated in Music City BEST, a statewide robot-building competition at Lipscomb.
- For more information on the annual Music City BEST Robotics Competition, click here.
“It will have to move around and probably have a movable arm,” Reasonover said of the camper’s final project, to be built in the span of a few hours. “That may seem really simple, but for robotics, just making it move is a cause for great joy and excitement!”
Reasonover should know. In fall 2006, David Lipscomb Campus Schools fielded a team for the first-ever Boosting Engineering and Science Technology (BEST) Robotics Competition, held at Lipscomb University in October. Six high schools participated, each building a robot from the same set of mechanical parts. The robots were designed to hang and remove laundry from a clothesline.
“Obviously we developed a robot that was very efficient,” Reasonover said. “But we had a huge learning curve. This whole camp is to help kids learn the basics we had to learn in a hurry. We had to devote a lot of hours, but now we know what it takes to develop a good robot.
“When I got involved, I had no idea of electronics,” he said, noting he had no plans to become an engineer when he signed up for the robotics team. “But now I am able to see the broad picture of mechanics. Robots are going to play a huge role in the future, so being able to participate in a camp like this is a really good for students.”
Faculty at Lipscomb’s Raymond B. Jones School of Engineering will be teaching the courses for the camp, and Reasonover will teach a session on effective brainstorming.
Reasonver said he still doesn’t think he will become a mechanical engineer as an adult, but he does intend to become an Eagle Scout. Boy Scouts must display leadership, organization and good delegation skills during their service project to win the highest award in Boy Scouting, he said.
Lipscomb University also has high hopes for the Robotics Camp, expecting it to promote awareness of the BEST robotics program, which is designed to encourage hands-on engineering studies throughout the state. Tennessee and Kentucky’s middle- and high-schoolers will once again be invited to compete in the BEST robotics competition this coming September.
- To register for the 2007 BEST competition this fall, click here.
“BEST is a program that not only teaches students skills they can use for a lifetime, but it does it in a fun, interactive way,” said Ben Hutchinson, dean of Lipscomb’s College of Natural and Applied Sciences, which includes the school of engineering. “The BEST program is unusual among student engineering programs because it actually requires the students themselves to design and build the robots.”
Related Links
DLCS robot wins big in state's first Music City BEST competition
Teen-built robots overtake Lipscomb's Allen Arena on Oct. 21