Students from as far north as Dulce, and as far south as Bernalillo, recently packed the Northern New Mexico College Sportsplex — but they weren’t there to watch a basketball game.
The mostly K through eighth grade students gathered, March 11, to control robots, fly microdrones and learn how 3-D printers work, as part of the 2017 RoboRave and Science Showdown.
The students participated in informal competitions for bragging rights, only, as they didn’t receive any prizes.
Janelle Vigil-Maestas from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Community Programs Office, said her Office started sponsoring the event several years ago, to give students practice ahead of the much larger annual, international contest held each year in Albuquerque. This year, it will be on May 5 and 6.
“We brought it to Northern because we had a lot of students that were starting teams and they didn’t have experience competing,” she said.
Vigil-Maestas said giving students an opportunity to gain valuable hands-on instruction helps her organization achieve its overall goal of introducing students to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields.
“It teaches them engineering skills and encourages them to pursue STEM careers,” she said.
Besides establishing the foundation for an interest in the sciences and technology, Vigil-Maestas said the exercises teach them teaming skills.
A student exercises teaming skills when they learn how to do something, then teach their peers what they learned.
Española Valley High freshman Tim Salazar has been coming to the RoboRave since he was in elementary school. That was when his sixth grade teacher Jimmy Lara first introduced him to the event.
He said nowadays, he attends the event to help the younger students, including his little brother, Josh Salazar, who, at 11-years-old, is attending the event for the second consecutive year.
Española-area parent Amanda Trujillo brought her second-grade daughter Miranda Martinez, and her fifth-grade son Christopher Martinez, to check out the event. Her daughter attends McCurdy Charter School, while her son attends Gallina Elementary School.
Trujillo said she thought it would be a nice opportunity to fulfill her childrens’ natural curiosity.
“This is our first year,” she said. “They (her children) are at that age where they want to learn.”
She said attending the event could possibly ignite a spark that develops into a life-long passion for science.
“They are our future,” she said. “They need to be exposed at an early age to the different careers.”
Like Vigil-Maestas, Northern Provost Ivan Lopez-Hurtado agrees that the annual rally does a good job of introducing future engineers to a life-long passion, which he, too, believes could result in a rewarding profession.
“Engineering careers are the wave of the future for so many students to have wonderful careers,” he said.
The College administrator said specifically, the event sets the stage for students to develop interest in the computer sciences and the electrical or mechanical engineering fields, to name a few.
Lopez-Hurtado said even if the students don’t pursue a computer science or engineering career track, their involvement with the RoboRave activities could translate to them being a better employee.
“It is not about the robots,” he said. “What they are getting is a logical way of solving problems. A lot of them won’t be doing robots, but whatever they do, they will be just great.”
When the students grew tired of figuring out how the robots worked, they could visit any number of booths and view demonstrations such as a voice-activated robotic car taking commands in Diné, the Navajo language, or inputting instructions into a 3-D printer.
Vigil-Maestas said having professionals around to provide hands-on demonstrations is important because it provides students with a human model upon which to draw.
“It is important for them to envision what they are doing now as a career, to see what their future can look like,” she said.
Lopez-Hurtado said although the expo hasn’t been around long enough for him to start seeing participants enroll in Northern as engineering majors, he is slowly starting to see RoboRave alumni show up on campus.
One of the alumni to whom he is referring, is Tim Salazar. The 15-year-old is enrolled in a Northern computer literacy class as a part of Española Valley High School’s dual credit program.
Tim Salazar said once he finishes his education, he plans on pursuing a STEM career.
High School math teacher and parent, Ian Caiglet, has worked with RoboRave in some form or another during the past four years — usually on a volunteer basis.
He said he volunteers his time and energy because it is an opportunity to teach and teaching is his passion.
The program’s importance rests in its ability to capture the attention and imagination of the students who are often overlooked.
“Specifically the kids who aren’t into sports,” Caiglet said. “Academically, they could be good students and you want to give them something to do.”
Those who aren’t affiliated with a school organization and are 11 years old or older, can drop by the Española YMCA Teen Center to participate in the Center’s robotics program.
Teen Center Director Ben Sandoval said classes are usually held Wednesday afternoons, but he will work with teens any time during the week to get them started on the basics of robotics. Those interested can call Sandoval, at 747-6569.