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KUGAARUK/PELLY BAY
Students at Kugaaruk School are getting help from an unusual source to make tough math problems easier to understand: robots.

The school has received six computers, a joystick-controlled robotic arm, a miniature closed-circuit television that attaches to the arm, a countertop fluid power training system and an electronic console that suspends plastic balls on columns of air.

Students in Grade 10 and Grade 11 apprenticeship math classes, as well as the Grade 11 applied math course, have started programming the robots to repeat a task or move a ball from one place to another.

High school math and science teacher John Misek said students then have to debug the program and simplify it, which he said is another way of learning how to add and subtract positive and negative whole numbers (integers).

"It's gone well," he said. "It all involves the process of adding and subtracting integers, which students normally have trouble with. This has helped them a great deal to learn that skill."

Misek said it took a couple of days to learn how the robots work, the language they use and the programming code associated with it. The students then learn to write their own code before editing it to make it work smoothly.

"This is a new way of approaching a subject they've traditionally had trouble with. It's something they find extremely interesting as well," he said. "Before they know it, they're adding and subtracting integers and they didn't even know it. That's what we're trying to do - teach them integers and some basic mathematics in a different and interesting way."

Students will also use the robots to learn geometry and trigonometry through the arm's motions.

Misek said it's been a positive experience so far.

"You're never going to have all the students interested all the time but I've had a disproportionate number, so a large number that are interested a lot of the time. I think we're making progress so I think it's been worthwhile," he said.

Two of the students involved in the programming are Leonardo Qayaksaaq and Charlene Immingark.

Qayaksaaq said he enjoys programming the robots and debugging the program.

"I learned there's lots of ways to use it. It's fun. We learn a lot of new things," said the Grade 11 applied math student.

Immingark, who is using robots for the first time, said she likes programming them because it's different.

"I learned to add angles. It's a lot of fun. It's more interesting in math class," said the Grade 12 student.

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