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Teachers-to-be take to TETRIX™

Emporia State University education students tackle robotics challenge
Middle school students and science education
majors faced off in a Mission to Mars Science Olympiad
robotics competition at Emporia (Kansas) State University
last fall. Using Pitsco Education's customizable TETRIXTM
building system, teams designed and built remote-controlled
rovers that tackled a simulated Martian landscape.
Students knew the objectives going in – navigate the
environment and retrieve “space rocks” (billiard balls) for
points – but the designs of their TETRIX rovers and the special features they innovated were up to them.
The event, the brainchild of ESU education professor Dr. Matt Seimears, was intended to give
university students ideas for and experience with the kind of hands-on curriculum found in a dynamic
science classroom. The activity was designed to exercise critical thinking, math, and teamwork skills.
The TETRIX building system, comprised of a trove of motors and aircraft-grade aluminum
elements, can be assembled in an almost limitless number of ways. And the resulting robots have the
capacity for either remote control or autonomous operation via the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT
programmable brick. This versatility appealed to Dr. Seimears.
“When you usually buy a robot, you place batteries in it and observe what it can do,” Seimears
said. That isn’t the case with TETRIX, however. “Not one robot looks the same in the competitions. You
can add whatever you want to these robots.”
Seimears said that when he discovered TETRIX robots, the idea for the competition instantly
leapt into his mind. Students in the competition suffered no lack of inspiration as well, designing
mechanical arms, traps to seize the balls, and wheel variations for quick turning. One eighth-grade team
from Wichita’s Mayberry Magnet Middle School even mounted a navigational camera on their bot. The
competition was such a success that another expanded event is already planned for this spring.
To learn more about TETRIX, visit www.TETRIXrobotics.com. To view a video of the ESU
robotics showdown, visit http://www.emporia.edu/news/archives/2009/october/marsmission.htm.
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