Coding...What can it do for you?

   

Today our 4-H Coding Day Campers ventured out into the world to see what the future might hold for some cool coding kids.     

Our first stop what to see John Allen and his robotics team at Robeson Community College-Early College program.  Our youth learned about engineering, planning, and coding when it comes to robotics.  Their favorite part was working with the students.  They said the students were so nice, patient with them, and helped them learn so much. 

Then it was time to see the main attraction.  The competition robot that they team built and takes to competitions and educational events to allow people to learn more about robotics.  Our youth got to see how it was put together and how it works.  But their favorite part was either handling the controls or trying to catch the rings that the robot shoots out around their necks.  The robot was much bigger and heavier than our youth anticipated and the code for it was a little foreign to them but that won't stop them from giving it a shot in the future.  

After lunch our youth dove into an activity that we often refer to in 4-H as junk drawer robotics.  Its where you take everything you have in teh junk drawer and use it to create your own robot. Our youth were creative and came up with some pretty cool designs.   

Once they finished that they got the chance to explore with some nanobots and had a ball with that.  All and all our youth were excited about the future of robotics, coding, and even said that they want to go to early college to be part of that program.  We can't thank John Allen and all his students for rolling out the red carpet and robot for our 4-H members.

After RCC it was time to go to the moon and back.  Ken Brandt at the planetarium welcomed our campers to talk about another engineering and coding marvel, the mars rover.  The youth took part in a planetarium show about Mars and learned all sorts of cool stuff about how we are exploring the planet and gathering data.  Our youth also got the chance to check out the science center and had a great time doing stem things.  Stuff and things is what they said they wanted to explore and I would ay that we are here,  Special thankks to Mr. Brandt for hosting us at the planetarium.

To see all the fun from today in pictures please click this link.