Nemesis Hosts Their Annual Discovery Day!

Ducking from flying paper airplanes and watching enthusiastic campers moving from station to station, it’s obviously Robotics Discovery Day at Robbinsville High School. This annual event, which took place on December 1st and 2nd, is incredibly popular amongst elementary-age students. It continues to remain successful, with all of the campers truly enjoying their experiences. 2018’s Discovery Day served as a great learning opportunity that allowed the young students to test their technical skills while solving open ended challenges while having fun.

The campers were tasked with building a paper airplane launcher. They experimented with different types of motors to create a design to launch their airplanes the farthest. Winners were based off of the longest glide time or the longest distance covered. Some airplanes flew as far as 60 feet! Campers also used LEGO Mindstorms to create a robot that participated in a tug of war battle or climbed an inclined plane.

Paired into groups of two or three, student teams worked with a high school mentor. Utilizing their creativity and mechanical skills, campers needed to be able to differentiate between sizes of gears in order to create a successful launcher design. Student mentors were incredibly impressed with the way campers faced obstacles. Anushka Pillay, a first-year student mentor whose team’s airplanes launched the farthest distance, noted, “The kids came up with innovative solutions to all of the problems they faced. Even though they were not very familiar with LEGO Mindstorms, they were still able to build a launcher with a creative design.”

Not only did the campers experiment with different motors, gears and designs, but they also worked together as a team. Cooperating with team members was essential to success, and campers were able to practice team-building skills throughout the event. Ritika Bhatnagar, a freshman on Nemesis, observed the excellent teamwork of her campers saying, “It was so cool watching them work together. They collaborated on ideas together and helped each other out.”

In addition to completing the challenges, campers took part in entertaining activities such as driving Nemesis’ mighty robot, Fury, and learning about the First Lego League (FLL). The FLL teams sparked interest in STEM by providing the campers with an in-depth explanation of their challenges. Campers also participated in a demonstration of the captivating humanoid NAO Robot.

The activities of Robotics Discovery Day had a wonderful impact on the campers. Swapna, a fourth-grade camper, exclaimed, “Discovery Day was so fun! I loved building the robots and launching the paper planes! Driving Fury was one of my favorite parts too. I really want to do robotics now because it seems so interesting!”

Thank you to those who participated! We hope to see you next year!

We would love to thank our sponsors. We can’t do it without you!  Navair, Robbinsville High School, Picatinny Arsenal, Lockheed Martin, DoDStem, Bristol-Myers Squibb, CCL Label, Investors Foundation, New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists, Robbinsville Education Association, Sharbell Development, RAS, Robbinsville Education Foundation, Princeton Sports and Family Medicine, EAG Laboratories, DesignTree, CCC, Gilbane, Triangle Copy, SkyLink Technology, Inc., Coldwell Banker, and the family and friends of Nemesis.