Students at North Windy Ridge Intermediate (NWR) school had a low tech arcade experience courtesy of the Robotics team! For their annual fundraiser, students created a cardboard arcade out of physical components, sometimes using their robotics skills and some deciding to go entirely old school with cardboard, paper, tape, hot glue, and small objects.
Students paid $1 for endless play on the machines during a half hour period, and earned candy as prizes. A wide range of games were available and created by the students, such as skee-ball, plinko, pinball, miniature putt-putt, and even a crane game with a robotic crane.
“We do this every year, where this year’s team raises money for next year’s team to compete,” said Russel Thompson, STEM teacher at North Windy Ridge. “It’s a tradition and the students love it, and do a great job.”
“Just like during robotics, it’s all about taking ideas and innovating those ideas, making them tangible, something they can interact with and use,” said Mr. Thompson. “It’s amazing seeing how they can take a game that already exists and innovate on that. For instance, the miniature putt-putt – you see it on a small scale and assume it’s easy, but it’s actually very tough! Students had to create designs, test them, change around what didn’t work, and innovate throughout the process.”
This year’s fundraiser was another success for the robotics club, where next year a new group of sixth graders will compete in robotics tournaments and learn innovation, problem solving, resilience, teamwork, programming, and the joy of creating something real from just an idea.