New teacher brings robotics to Morris School

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This article was published 24/11/2023 (546 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new technology teacher has brought the love of robotics to his students at Morris School.

Teacher J.P. Jamieson had a robotics team at his previous school in Carman with much success where they competed in the Manitoba Robot Games in Winnipeg. He decided to bring the club to Morris after transferring there this year.

“First of all, the big goal is to get them to see the Manitoba Robot Games and be inspired by some of the things they see and also what some of the other teams are doing. We’re always looking for good ideas so even in the team, if somebody comes up with a good design then we’re curious to see who can beat that design, and maybe they can take some inspiration from it and revise their robots from it,” said Jamieson.

There are 26 students in the club which meets at lunch time to build and perfect their robots. The initial start up cost for the robot is $50 which pays for a gear box, tires, controller, and motor. The children then solder the gearbox to the controller and build the plastic body to finish their robots. There are three categories that the students can design their robots around: speed, power, or somewhere in between.

“They have weight classes so when we build it it’s about 200 grams, but you’re allowed to have it up to 500 grams. So, now the students have to think about, ‘What should I do with the 300 grams?’ When they first build it, it’s a relatively simple shape, but you can see some students will build it into the shape of a pyramid or a cone or they’ll put scoops on the front or a large shovel and make it look like a bulldozer. The game itself is called Robot Sumo, the two robots try to push each other out of the ring. So the robot that is either driven better, or designed better, or put together should win,” said Jamieson, noting each match is about 20 seconds.

To pay for the tools that they needed to build the robots, Morris Build All Centre and parents chipped in for supplies. To learn how to solder, the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) from the University of Manitoba came and held a demonstration.

“I like engineering and technology so that always interests me,” said Grade 7 student Hannah Klassen, who plans on being a civil engineer, as to why she joined the club.

Hannah said she likes the fact that her robot doesn’t have to be the same as other people’s, but “we can all test them together and bounce ideas off of each other…I’m probably going to build a pyramid robot. I think it’s a cool defence thing and I like defence.”

Grade 7 student Sungwon Moon thinks the club will help him in the future as technology becomes more and more important.

“Knowing things from the robotics team technology could help with getting a job or just my day-to-day life,” he said.

For Grade 7 student Natalie Wiebe, building her robot was fun and she recommends the club to everyone. She said she was looking for a bit of a challenge when she joined and she likes being competitive.

“I also like to be all on the same team and it’s sort of both being on a team and also you want to be the one that wins,” she said.

While she doesn’t think she’ll win at the games she knows how she’s going to design her robot.

“I think I want to do scoops and a pyramid combined because it would be good to have some defence and attack surfaces.”

The robotics team is open to Grades 7 to 11. The Manitoba Robot Games are held in March.