My co-worker Margaret’s son Dan has been very involved in a Robotics class at Proctor High School.  On May 10th, he competed in the Midwest Robotics League competition of 120 pound Bot Battles.  The class involves the students creating the idea of the Bot, designing, building the Bot which includes welding, cutting metal, lexan, wires, etc. and testing so that everything works.  Dan decided to add a pneumatic arm to his Bot which can be seen down the middle.  The theory behind the arm was to come up to another Bot in battle and flip the opposition with the arm. The arm worked but the flipper needed to be bigger.  Dan also learned in this competition that the batteries he used did not hold power long enough to finish a three minute battle.  Math and Science, team work, and problem solving skills are used when building and fighting these Bots. The students have lots of fun building and battling.  It’s a great sense of accomplishment when one sees the finished working product of one’s ideas.  Here is another link for the National Competition.