By Jake Thomas
The Robotics Club at Cameron University has recently made strides in outreach by participating in a robotics event at the Lawton Library for volunteer work. Library programs offer younger students a chance to understand the environment for robotics work and a good starting point for aspiring engineers or programmers.
Leading these Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs is coordinator Brooke Rooney for the library. Rooney is a teacher at the LRC, with a VEX robotics class that meets a few times a month. She also coaches the library’s own LEGO robotics league.
“So, today we did VEX robotics, and VEX is just the brand name,” Rooney said. “It’s a robotics brand geared towards eight to fourteen year olds … but this company accommodates four year olds all the way through postgrad, really, all the way through university level robotics.”
The goal for Rooney is to make the VEX program casual and family oriented. It’s different from the library’s LEGO League, which is structured as a competitive team based event.
“We compete in FIRST LEGO League, so it’s sponsored by LEGO, but there are countless other large companies involved,” Rooney said. “There’s a building and coding element and then they’re on a robotic floor solving missions. Every year has a theme, so they have to research a real-world problem, come up with a solution and present it.”
Although this is the second year the city of Lawton has competed in the program, it is the library’s first time offering their own team.
“Lawton as a community is in its second year with LEGO robotics,” Rooney said. “The elementary and middle schools started it last year, and we decided here at the library to have a team as well, for homeschool students and kids not already on a school team.”
Given the success of the robotics events at the library, the growth has been substantial. It’s likely that with all the new advancements and additions, some help was needed. That’s where the Cameron Robotics Club came in, and Rooney couldn’t be more thankful for them.
“VEX went from about 12 kids to about 70 kids in one month,” Rooney said. “I truly don’t know what I would do without them. Each one of them has their own strength. One or two of them deal with parts, some of them talk with the kids and offer insight, and a couple are just there to make sure I don’t lose my mind. They’re a really great group of young adults, and I’m grateful for them.”
Sophomore Mechanical Engineering major and Robotics Club Activities Coordinator John Martinez has accompanied fellow club members as a regular volunteer at the Lawton Library.
“Since we originally contacted the library about the VEX robotics, I’ve been at every one,” Martinez said. “It’s mostly because I enjoy doing outreach for these programs. With engineering and robotics … that’s part of what we should be doing is outreach to the community.”
Cameron students primarily assist Rooney, helping sessions run efficiently.
“We’re assisting Brooke because it’s her class,” Martinez explained. “We just make sure it goes smoother, like today. When she was a little bit behind, we set it up for her, and we were ready to go when she got here.”
Martinez said the two formats offer different challenges, but provide similar enrichment to new and younger students.
“VEX is more complicated to build, but LEGO is more complicated to accomplish the goals,” he said. “With LEGO robotics, it’s strictly programming. They build a little RC car-like robot, but it doesn’t have a controller. It’s one of those ‘hit go, and let it do its thing’ robots, and they have to program it to complete specific missions.”
From Martinez’s perspective, the Robotics Club offers an opportunity to experience his degree in a new light.
“Robotics Club gives you an idea of what things you can do with your degree,” he said. “It’s not just simply programming or little robotics kits. You actually have to think about it. I think it’s important to have hands-on experience and not just labs and classes.”
From the library’s perspective, the partnership with the robotics club has been helpful. Tanya Organ, the library’s Community Engagement Librarian, helps oversee programming alongside Rooney, and shares a similar sentiment.
“STEM events and initiatives are really popular right now within the community,” Organ said. “It gives kids the opportunity to do something greater than what the schools can provide. To compete in LEGO League is a pretty costly adventure, so for us to be able to provide that for free to the community is always a good feeling.”
Organ said the collaboration with Cameron began when students reached out and offered their assistance.
“They saw it in our newsletter and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to volunteer,’” Organ said. “We were absolutely happy to have them. They’ve been very helpful to Brooke. I think it’s been a very good partnership, and we’re grateful they were interested.”
She also emphasized that this level of student involvement is new to the library.
“I believe this is the first time we’ve had Cameron students regularly involved on this scale,” she said. “Hopefully it will continue, and maybe students will get involved in other areas too.”
Organ explained that the Lawton Library has plenty to offer students in various areas.
“We have plenty of databases with study guides, job-seeking resources, and of course, we have e-books and audiobooks that can be helpful for classes,” she said.
With library programs expanding and robotics establishing themselves as a proper club, both sides see the volunteer work as a win-win. Kids gain early exposure to engineering and problem-solving, while university students gain real-world leadership and technical skills.
For more information about the Robotics Club, attend one of their several meetings or social events located at the CETES makerspace.