Newtown Middle School automation and robotics class students created an assembly line as the final project of the roughly year-long course.

As approximately 20 students worked on June 5, one of the class’s final days of the school year, phrases like “conveyor belt” and “drill a hole” were overheard.

Technology education teacher Kevin Eppley said this was the first year the pilot course was offered at the school, and the program was rounding-out as a success. He said the students were doing “excellent. I’ve been really impressed.” He has hopes to replicate the class next year with 27 students.

Ahead of the June 5 class, Mr Eppley presented to the students a red plastic block he had created. It was decorated with the words “Newtown Robotics,” and two holes were drilled through the center. The block also had indentations on some sides; it was not a perfect rectangle. Students were tasked to work in groups to create an assembly line of robots that could replicate the block. Along with building the crafty creations, the students were also charged with coding movements.

While Mr Eppley said the students found the experiment “challenging,” he also said, “The kids have impressed me. They’ve gone above and beyond.”

The students continued working on the effort through the last week of school, and on June 12, Mr Eppley wrote in an e-mail, “We had our assembly line running today! The students worked very hard to finalize their designs for their robots. We had four of the five groups able build and then code their robots to complete each task successfully.”

The final robot was not lined up correctly, and Mr Eppley said he is confident that if the students had a little more time to work, the end result would be been a successful model.

“Overall, the assembly line was a excellent learning experience for the students, and we had plenty of laughs along the way,” Mr Eppley observed.