THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
A new club has been formed at the public library in Fort Smith, but it might not be what you'd expect to find in a calm space surrounded by books.
The core members of the Mary Kaeser Library Robotics Club are Jon Labine, from left, Josh Bird and Matthew Bird. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo
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It's the Mary Kaeser Library Robotics Club.
The club formed in late January with funding from the Mary Kaeser Library Advisory Board to purchase Lego Mindstorm, which are kits containing software and hardware, such as motors and sensors, to create small, customizable and programmable robots.
"It's basically up to the imagination what we do with it," said Matthew Bird, one of the founding members of the club.
Bird said club members can combine the components of Lego Mindstorm in different ways to make whatever they want, but have so far just been following instructions to get the basics figured out.
"We're wanting to start work on something more creative that we devised on our own," he said, adding the club is not yet sure what that might be. "Things that we've discussed are some sort of music robot that can play the piano or something like that."
Club members are also considering creating an explorer robot that can follow people with a camera.
So far, the club is made up of three core members – Bird, his brother Josh, and Jon Labine – and two others who participate on a semi-regular basis.
The club, which meets once a week, is ready to attract more members.
"We haven't really been able to spread the word yet, but we also wanted to keep it kind of small to begin with so we could get the grounding and figure out exactly how it would work," Bird said. "Now that we've got that established, we're starting to reach out to new members."
The club is targeted to young people around the age of 12 and above because of the technical difficulty in working with the robotics components.
The idea of the club originated with Matthew, who works part-time at the library.
"For me, it started with computers, I guess, and I've always been interested in computers, mostly how to program them to get them to do things, and then robotics slips right into that category," said the 19-year-old.
The library advisory board provided close to $2,000 for the purchase of Lego Mindstorm.
"Going to the library board and getting the funding for it has been great because then we can actually have all the little tools that I wouldn't be able to afford necessarily by myself," Matthew said.
The board was looking for new programming ideas and thought it was a great idea to reach young people with science in a new way.
Rita Antoniak, a member of the library advisory board, said the board supported the idea because it is so innovative.
"The big thing was it's a different aspect of literacy," she said.
Antoniak said it is also hoped the club will attract more young males to the library and more young females to math and science.
"I think it's really something to stimulate their minds," she added.
While the library and the board want to promote science, robotics is also fun, Bird said.
"You can have fun in the library. You want to have that fun component, as well as the learning component."
