The sounds of tumbling Legos filled the air of SIUE’s engineering lab as third through fifth graders searched for the parts to the robots they would be building in that day’s “RoboCamp.”

This year’s Robotics Camp, directed by EHS math teachers Scott Hagin and John Meinzen, was the eighth one held. There are two robotics camps each year, one in the fall and one in the spring.

Kids in grades three, four and five are helped by Hagin’s computer team and some of SIUE’s computer engineering students to build and program their own robots over the course of the four hour camp. This year, each camper was to build and program a robot that could save rubber ducks from an oil spill.

Hagin’s inspiration for the campers’ challenge was the BP oil spill in the Gulf, as the camp fell on the same day as the disaster’s anniversary. “I think it’s important for them to know about the environment and what’s going on,” Hagin said. “There are robots actually helping clean up the oil spill, so there’s a direct connection.”

Before starting the challenge, the campers were taken through a brief history of robotics. The overview included a discussion about robots dating from all the way back to 1996 right up to today.

For many kids, this was their first time building a robot. Andre, a fourth grader, was excited to build and program his robot for the first time. He said he liked that he could make the robots do whatever he wanted.

Not all the campers were newcomers, though. Some, like fifth graders Luke and Shaun, had made robots at the previous fall camp and had come back this year to do it again. Their favorite parts of the robotics camps were the technology used and seeing their robots work. Nathan, a previous camper, said he wasn’t very good at programming, but he was a natural at building.

Many of the high school helpers started at the same level as these students or at the middle school, all with the same interests in mind. Junior Adam Bailey took an interest in robotics in seventh grade and enjoys building the robots as well as some programming.

In middle school, some students began taking part in the BotBall competitions, a robotics game that has been running for about 12 years. They now help to run the robotics camp for elementary school kids.

While the kids at the camp did have an ultimate goal of saving the rubber ducks, in Hagin’s opinion the campers had only one job—to “have fun!”