Our STEM Lab was filled with the sounds of bursting balloons and high-energy cheers this week as we concluded our most chaotic Coding Club project yet: Battle Bots. Members challenged themselves to engineer "deadly" robots using a combination of plastic cups, thumbtacks, and tape, with the mission to pop rival balloons while defending our own. Be warned—if you watch our project videos, they come with a major volume warning because we were absolutely hyped for this office-supply showdown!
Beyond the popping balloons, this project required students to put their STEM skills to the test. They had to navigate precise movements while utilizing structural engineering to ensure their "cup-bots" remained stable during combat. They balanced offense and defense in real-time, learning how to maximize their physical designs after every intense round in the arena.
We believe that diving into these concepts in elementary school is vital for building our computational thinking and resilience. By merging abstract coding with physical engineering, we learned firsthand that failure is simply a necessary step in the design process. This project proved to us that even with simple materials, early exposure to STEM makes us more creative thinkers, ready to tackle any challenge that "pops" up!