By Wendi Reardon Price
Clarkston News Staff Writer
The last two weeks Team RUSH 27 Robotics students were leading the way for younger students in five camps.
Senior Leo Gach led RUSH Junior Robotics and Vex123, for grades 1-3, which was held in the afternoon with two one-week sessions.
“We are having them program these little robots called Vex123,” he explained, adding Vex123 is simpler and more based on code. “They are little robots which are really easy to program.”
They taught the campers how to program the robots with simple codes using small programming pieces. For the final project, the campers programmed their robots to get around an obstacle course.
“The kids learn how to work together because we are using a group of 2-3 people, and they will be working with the same robot and have to achieve the same goal. We want them to bond and really work as a team and work efficiently as a team and have fun as well. We are building the basis for critical thinking,” Gach said.

Kids going into grades 3-5 were able to sign up for the next level for the RUSH FLL Robotics, which had two sessions for four days each.
Senior Alison Scheil led RUSHING Girls to 3D Printing and Laser Cutting, for girls entering grades 5-12, which was offered for one session for four days.
“It feels so great to be able to pass down my own knowledge into it and watch their faces light up as they learn things,” Scheil said. “It’s wonderful because I remember what it was like to learn all those things and be able to create a project and for something that was tangible. It’s just so wonderful to be able to see the girls get interested in Tinker CAD and engineering.”
Campers worked on 3D modeling with TinkerCad and created planters for succulents.
“They are learning a little bit about how that works and being creative and use their own ideas to put their personality into their project,” she added.
Junior Dean Wcisel and sophomore Sam Dekoninck were two of the leaders for RUSH 3D Modeling with TinkerCad, for grades 5-9, which had beginner and advanced camps offered.
“TinkerCAD is a web based software that’s easy for them to learn,” Wcisel explained. “It’s a good introduction to CAD. There are a lot of fun things you can do with it.”
He added it’s cool to see the interest in the kids. “It’s just nice to see kids start so young and seeing them be more in the robotics program later on.”