APL Hosts 'Robots of the Ring' Program for Maryland
Middle Schoolers
Nearly 400 students from 22 middle schools across
Maryland will compete in the fourth annual TEAMS science
and technology competition on Thursday, May 6, at
APL. TEAMS —
which stands for Technology Education Alliance with Middle
Schools — will bring participants from Baltimore City
and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Howard, Montgomery
and Prince George's counties to the annual educational
initiative to promote math, science, technology and
engineering.
Through robotic games, the program is designed to show
middle schoolers how teaming enables them to solve
technology problems that could not be solved individually,
and relate this concept to the design and construction of
spacecraft.
This year's competition, "Robots of the Ring," is
based on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Each team
will design, build and operate three robots and task them
with a series of complex maneuvers on a pingpong table. One
robot will have to knock down a block wall and push balls
onto the opponent's side of the table while simultaneously
protecting its playing field. A second will push as many as
10 rings up a ramp and into the mouth of a "volcano." A
third will push a plastic frog across a shaky bridge onto
the opponent's side of the table and guard against its
return.
GO TO MAY 3, 2004
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GO TO THE GAZETTE
FRONT PAGE.
|