TEHKUMMAH—Robotics fever is sweeping Manitoulin Island with the success of our local high schools and grade schools robotics teams winning awards locally, provincially and internationally. Support for these students is strong and their achievements are inspiring—even to the very young.
Emily Black is one such inspired seven-year-old, a Grade 2 student at Assiginack Public School who has a passion for robots. She’s been designing robots for some time now, each with specific functions and capabilities. Recently, she put them all together in a journal. Her drawings are elaborate, clearly imaging the purpose of each of her bots.
Emily is inspired by her surroundings, and she is clearly influenced by the people in her life. Living on a farm, she felt the need to design a farm bot. “It only does work in the fields. Dirt comes out the bottom. Fresh dirt, not old dirt, and here is water, and seeds come out here.” She loves books and reading, so it just made sense to design a book bot. “In here we type in the title of the book we want, then the book comes out here,” she explained. “The power painter picks up signals from phones and the paint brush can extend and curve anywhere,” she said of that design. “These little arms can grab whatever colour you choose.”
She’s designed a basketball bot, which she said would be helpful for basketball players. “And I think it’s really cute with the headband on.” The trash picker upper has grabber arms, “And if it finds trash in the ditch it puts it in these little cans. Once they get filled up, they go into waste, compost or recycle.”
The Unsick 6000 has a bandage, a thermometre, a blanket and a bowl of soup. “It’s very gentle,” Emily said, assuredly. There was a movie bot (which includes popcorn), and a weather bot with a windsock. Just about anything with which a person might need help, Emily has thought about and created a solution.
It’s probably safe to say Emily’s interest in robots comes from her mother. Caroline Black is a teacher at Manitoulin Secondary School and a faculty member of their robotics team. “My mom is on the robotics team, so I thought, ‘why not design robots that could help,’” Emily said. When asked if she’d like to be on the robotics team when she gets to high school, she said, probably, but she wasn’t sure. She has many other interests.
“I’ve tried to make many things, but not all of them have worked,” she admitted. “So, I didn’t throw in the towel. Like the robotics team, I didn’t quit. That’s why I thought, maybe instead of going right to building, I should make a design first. And that actually worked.” Besides creating robots on paper, she loves building them with her Lego set, Spike, which comes with motors, sensors, lights and an app to program the things she builds.
Emily has also produced a science show, not presently available for the general public, however, if this young scientist/inventor/designer is any indication of the next generation, it’s safe to say the future is in very good hands.
