by Deborah Fox, News-Bulletin Staff Writer Feb 14, 2017
LOS LUNAS — Math and engineering concepts come alive students say, when they use them to build robots.

The Valencia County Home School Robotics Teams used simple engineering plans and equipment to build robots they will compete in the Kirtland Air Force Research Laboratory La Luz Academy Robotics Challenge on March 2.

The three home-school teams are the Transformers, Big Hero 3 and The Ohm Schoolers.

“I’ve had an amazing experience in robotics,” said Amanda Sparks with the Transformers team. “I’ve made new friends and broadened my mind in many different subjects.”

In final preparation for the robotics competition, each team gave a presentation and demonstrated their robot’s abilities last week at the Community Bible Church in Los Lunas.

The Transformers’ robot, “Opie,” a small, boxy BOE-Bot with whiskers, was programmed to change course when its antenna touches an obstacle.

“When the whiskers are pushed, it sends a message to the servos (individual motor) that it needs to move back and turn a different way,” explained Elizabeth Schatzinger.

It looks a lot easier than it is, but once you’ve figured out the basics, you can perform the other tasks, added teammate Amanda Sparks.

“Sometimes what we program does not turn out how we want it to but using our math skills, we can figure out the problem and fix the program,” she said.

Sparks learned a surprising number of new math skills she said, and teammate Max Kiehne said it’s about learning computer programming language.

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