Shady Side Academy middle school robotics team teach skills in new program at Fox Chapel library

Shady Side Academy Middle School Blue robotics team members helped Fox Chapel Area youths learn more about robots through a new program at Cooper-Siegel Community Library.

The Lego League competitors taught the young builders and coders the benefits of teamwork and problem solving via three classes this year with the help of their coach, University of Pittsburgh professor Jun Yang.

The first one was in January and focused on construction. The second was in February with a focus on programming. The third and final class showcased the culmination of the junior engineers’ efforts April 20.

“It’s really exciting having all of them learning a lot,” said SSA sixth grader Vivian Zhang on the final day. “It’s been fun watching them learn from this. I think they are really bright, and I enjoy teaching them.”

The coach said Vivian and her fellow team members earned first place in robot design and robotics performance in this year’s Western Region of the PA state FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology — Lego League Robotics Championship.

Parents Cliff Yang and Ning Li hope that championship knowledge will rub off on their son, Alan Yang, 11.

“My son participated in a competition a year ago,” the father said. “I think this is a very good chance for (him) to evolve into science and engineering and have some experience. It’s very good.”

Li said they are very supportive of Alan’s activities, and he is passionate about robots.

Alan completed his robot fairly quickly and began working on attachments while other program participants were still on laptops and iPads programming their bots.

“It’s interesting to code, especially when you’re doing a mission,” Alan said. “After you master Lego (kits) you can actually use real robotics, which I’m planning on doing. These are small robots. The Shady Side (students) were pretty good teaching us new mechanisms.”

Vivian said the secret to robotic success is to have a very strong bot with not a lot of extra pieces.

“It has to do just what you want to do,” she said. “It can have stuff that makes it look pretty, but you want to make it very effective.”

Yang brought some of her own robot kits as well as some from the academy to the library. Pieces included various sizes of wheels, planks, motors and Bluetooth devices.

She said the program fits in with the Lego competition’s core values.

“It is the team’s effort to teach little kids and introduce this activity so that it can involve more kids,” Yang said. “We initiated it and can teach them from building to coding. This program is for fifth through eighth grade, but a fourth grader can join if they are advanced enough. All these kids (here) are from fifth grade. I think the kids love it and parents are interested.”

The coach said she plans on bringing the free program back to the Fox Chapel library next year.

It was offered at the Sharpsburg Community Library in previous years.