MCA Elementary Students Get a Visit from Twitchy the Robot

When the Elementary students at The Montessori Children’s Academy (MCA) met “Twitchy” the Robot, the class collectively said, “WOW!”

Twitchy is a rectangular-shaped competition robot skillfully built with an array of mechanical and electronic parts by the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 303 robotics club based at Bridgewater-Raritan Regional High School. FRC competes in robotics contests regionally, nationally and internationally.

The robot’s visit to MCA was a surprise for the Young Programmers students, who peppered one of the robot’s builders, Owen Busler, with a bevy of questions. Owen is a student at Bridgewater-Raritan Regional High School and a build captain with FRC Team 303.

The students wanted to know, first and foremost, “How does the robot work?”

Students in the MCA Young Programmers club expressed a keen interest in Twitchy, in part, because they’ve recently been working on their own Mindstorm robot over the course of a five-week period. They have been learning how to program their “MCA Robot” to maneuver by remote control via an iPad using a pair of apps. In addition, our students have specially outfitted their robot with a pirate costume that they designed and created themselves using both their imaginations and the school’s 3D printer.

Following the question-and-answer session with Owen, who described for the students how the robot that he built works, he put Twitchy into action using a joystick. The children saw Twitchy throw balls and pick them up. Laughter filled the air when MCA students took turns catching a soft gray ball tossed to them by the robot. To conclude the demonstration, the students were given a glimpse at the software code the Bridgewater team wrote to program their robot.

Demonstrations such as this allow The Montessori Children’s Academy to continue broadening its students’ horizons and offering opportunities for them to make connections with the world of 21st century technology in which they live. For further information about the school and our programs, please visit our website www.TheMontessoriChildrensAcademy.com. With campuses in Short Hills, Chatham, and Morristown, The Montessori Children’s Academy is Educating Today’s Child for Tomorrow’s World.