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South Central EPISD students tap into technology with robotics club [1]

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Date: 2024-12-12

Clear remote control spheres filled with gears and microchips rolled around the floor of the Guillen Middle School gym as small black drones lifted by propellers zoomed across the room.

The over 100-year-old brick building sits between mural-covered industrial buildings, the Cesar Chavez Border Highway and the homes of the Segundo Barrio, one of El Paso’s oldest and poorest neighborhoods.

Dozens of students, parents and teachers gathered at the school Dec. 7 for the Dreams of STEAM, Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math expo to see some of the robots and machines created by members of the Hart Elementary, Guillen Middle and Bowie High schools robotics clubs.

Antonio Morales, right, coordinator of robotics at Guillén Middle School, shows students a robot that solves a Rubik’s cube in fewer than 20 moves, Dec. 7, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Some made robots controlled by touch screen tablets while others built machines with mechanical legs used to play a miniature game of soccer. One former Guillen Middle School student designed a device equipped with a sensor that could solve a Rubix Cube, and tell how many steps it will take.

“When you hear about South Central (El Paso), it’s gangs, drugs, weapons – all that stuff. Now look at these talented kids,” said Guillen Middle School science teacher and event organizer Antonio Morales. “You may have future engineers here. You may have scientists. You may have doctors.”

Students in these clubs learn about computer programming, math, geometry and other skills that could come in handy if they choose to pursue a career in STEM, along with other valuable life skills.

“They’re learning English because all the coding is in English, and these are English language learners,” Hart Elementary School teacher Alma Chavez said. “They’re building on their hand-and-eye coordination skills and they are learning how to work in a group and to depend on each other.”

Students can join the club — which meets after school at select campuses throughout the El Paso Independent School District — starting in third grade and can continue throughout middle and high school.

The robotics club allows students to do something fun after school when they would otherwise be bored at home, many of those at the expo said.

“No hago quasi nada todo el dia. … Me gusta porque pierdo mi tiempo construyendo cosas,” Hart Elementary School student Joanel said in Spanish. “I do almost nothing all day. … I like it because I spend my time building things.”

Joanel built a funky little robot named Break Dance that moves and grooves when he turns it on. Next, he hopes to build a remote control car that can pick up small objects.

Ashbell Soto, a second-grader at Hart Elementary, covers her mouth in surprise as Antonio Morales, coordinator of robotics at Guillen Middle School, pulls a solved Rubik’s cube from a robot, Dec. 7, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

The 9-year-old said he hopes to grow up to become an architect like his father and a soldier like his cousin.

Throughout the event, children and adults dug through bins of snap-on rotors and blocks that can connect to small programmable computers to try their hands at creating their own inventions.

These parts come in kits like the Lego Spike Prime, designed for school students to learn the basics of building and computer coding. Each kit comes with lessons and plans students can follow to build and code their own robot.

In high school, students begin working with metal channels, nuts, bolts and power tools with the VEX V5 kit.

“On this level, we are now using machinery. We’ve got parts we have to cut so we’ve got dremels, we’ve got chop saws, we’ve got a drill press. We have to make some of our parts,” Bowie High School STEM teacher Daniel Gomez said.

The robot built by the Bowie High School Robotics Club will be used in the citywide VEX V5 Robotics Competition on Dec. 14 at Franklin High School where robots on opposing teams try to score points by placing rings on a steak.

Gomez said the team had to be creative and figure out how to get the rings past a rubber stopper at the tip of the steak when they designed their robot. One student figured it out by designing a metal lever that smacked down on the ring.

Students also get to learn basic building skills, he said.

“These kids don’t have the idea of how to use a screwdriver or to cut metal or anything like that,” Gomez said. “You need to learn these basic soft skills that are not being taught anymore.”

Damien Ramirez, an EPISD fifth-grader, resets a foosball-like robot that he built in his robotics club during the “Dreams of STEAM” showcase hosted by Guillen Middle School, Dec. 7, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Dailany Arias, a 5th grader at Hart Elementary, turns on her finished ferris wheel during the “Dreams of STEAM” showcase hosted by Guillen Middle School, Dec. 7, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Antonio Morales, coordinator of robotics at Guillén Middle School, holds a solved Rubik’s cube after a student-built robot finished the puzzle in 20 moves, Dec. 7, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Dailany Arias, a 5th grader at Hart Elementary, chooses parts to construct a ferris wheel during the “Dreams of STEAM” showcase hosted by Guillen Middle School, Dec. 7, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Teachers at the expo noted that students likely wouldn’t get the opportunity to learn those skills with robots if it weren’t for the free after-school clubs. Many of the kits these students use range in price from $400 to over $1,200.

While some of the supplies the club uses were purchased by the district, Morales said the vast majority were donated by local and national organizations through Donors Choose, a nonprofit that connects charities with school teachers who need resources for their classrooms.

Some of the donors include the El Paso Community Foundation, Young Sheldon on CBS and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Morales said.

“We are in the ZIP code with the highest poverty rate in El Paso County. These children now have access to resources that they never would have had,” Morales said.“Es algo muy bueno para ellos porque es el futuro y no me costó nada,” Hart Elementary School Parent Mayra Gaytán said in Spanish. “It’s great for them because that’s the future – and it didn’t cost me anything.”

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[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/12/12/guillen-middle-school-episd-robotics-steam-expo/

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