Photos by Kira Gendjar
PLYMOUTH, Mich.—Each year, Lightning Robotics puts on its annual Robots in the Park event in Plymouth, Michigan. Composed of a team of students, these high schoolers and their numerous supportive mentors worked hard to make this completely free event an engaging learning environment and an overall success. Hosted in Kellogg Park, the grass and nearby gathering area were filled with hands-on activities and demonstrations geared towards elementary children to introduce them to the fun world of STEM.
Lightning Robotics has been running out of Canton High School for the past 26 years. The program is primarily comprised of Plymouth-Canton Educational Park students. P-CEP has three comprehensive high schools on the same campus: Plymouth, Canton and Salem but has welcomed some students from other high schools, home-schooled students, and middle school students. The team started with about seven people in 1999 and has now grown to around 150 members who have received many awards over the decades. While engineering is the main focus of this team, business is another of the team’s interests. After new members go through rotations at each of the program’s subgroups, they get to choose which part of the team they will focus on. For engineering, the subgroups are design, fabrication, electrical, programming and strategy. The business subgroups are outreach, awards, animation and marketing.
Last season, the team went to the state championship and the world championship in Houston, Texas. This year, they additionally won the Sustainability Award at one of their local competitions, along with the Judges Award at another. Lightning Robotics’ Vice President of Business Angela Yang shared that the Judges Award is for recognition of work that didn’t necessarily fit into another category. In this case, the award was for their “electrifying outreach.”
On Aug. 11, members of Lightning Robotics and their mentors prepare for Robots in the Park. With the start time at 10 a.m., they arrived two hours in advance to set up STEM activities and prepare an array of demonstrations at Plymouth’s Kellogg Park. Quickly after the start, attendees started to trickle in. Current team members, past team members and mentors volunteer their time to help run Robots in the Park. When recent P-CEP graduate Jade Courson was asked why she came back to help with the event, she responded, “The passion with it because it’s such a fun event, and being able to do this is really cool to do. And also helping out the team that helped us.”
One of the demonstrations was called Density Drop. The demo visually explained why some liquids, like oil and water, won’t mix. Lightning Robotics’s fabrications and outreach mentor Jack Ventimiglia conducted an experiment that showed how the density of different liquids works.
Another activity was called Probability Play. Attendees of all ages enjoyed seeing that each bingo chip they dropped didn’t have the same probability of landing in the same column. As more chips are dropped, the varying heights of each column shows a distribution pattern.
With punch cards in hand to keep track of what activities have been accomplished, children hopped from tent to tent. Lightning Robotics volunteers were there through each step of the activities and offered encouraging smiles and helpful hints.
Some volunteers had the opportunity to help attendees learn how to drive the robots. Controlled from the sidelines, the driver could also try aiming and shooting balls or frisbees out of the robot. Lightning Robotics used previous high school competition robots for the hands-on demo.
Mentor Jack Ventimiglia quickly stepped back after executing the exploding Elephant Toothpaste experiment. This foamy fan-favorite demonstration aimed to show onlookers what a chemical reaction can look like. At the end, individuals could go up and feel that the container got warm due to the reaction.
The team’s most recent competitive robot Rhapsody was also out for a full demonstration. Attendees saw how it could be used in competition. A small camera placed strategically at the front of the robot allowed attendees to see what the robot was “seeing” displayed on a monitor.
Rhapsody zoomed across the mat to pick up orange rings thrown sporadically around. On the sidelines, Lightning Robotics’ programmers worked to adjust the robot where they wanted it. After the final adjustments were made, Rhapsody precisely makes it into the opening. The structure is a hand-made replica of what is used in competition.
The ‘Snap Circuits’ activity provided a space for individuals to explore and learn more about electricity. Learning and understanding the basic concepts of engineering can open up the fun world of STEM.
Attendees also had the opportunity to drive robots made by the middle school robotics team. Using hand-held controllers, the drivers could weave in and out of obstacles and steer their way into stacked cups.
Assistant lead mentor for engineering Todd Geib showed an intrigued kid the inner workings of a robot made of Legos. The display was filled with an array of other robots of a similar nature and was made by elementary student members of the FIRST Lego League (FLL).
The Penny Boats were another fan favorite. Throughout the day, dozens of kids attempted to make a boat out of aluminum foil that could hold pennies. With a ranking of who could place the most pennies before it sunk on display, many couldn’t wait for the opportunity to get their name on the leaderboard.
Lightning Robotics volunteers worked to make sure the supplies needed for the Egg Sleds activity were stocked. With diligent communication and some walkie-talkie radio calls, all the team members made sure all activities and demonstrations went smoothly.
Lightning Robotics team members weren’t afraid to lend a hand to ensure the best Mini Launchers were made. Children were full of smiles and concentrated looks as they watched their pom-pom balls soar through the air.
Jay Obsniuk (right), was the one who founded the program back in 1999 and has been the lead teacher for the team ever since. “My favorite part of this work is having fun with [the students] and enjoying it. There’s not a lot of ‘you have to do this’ or ‘you have to do that.’ At the beginning of the year, we tell them if you’re coming here it’s because you want to be here, and you want to do stuff. We’re not going to make you do anything. And they get everything done. It’s just… it’s remarkable,” Obsniuk said.