In July Special Olympics Kentucky had the pleasure of working with Dreams with Wings to demonstrate Unified Robotics to both their Dreams in Motion and Achieving Dreams summer camps.

The collaboration was made possible through a grant SOKY received from the Kentucky Department of Education Office of Special Education and Early Learning to promote knowledge and skills within STEM through an inclusive strategy in after-school or out-of-school programming.  The funding allowed for the purchase of the LEGO Education Spike Prime Kits used for the activity.

During SOKY’s initial visits to the camps, both groups of campers received an educational introduction to robotics covering topics such as the different functions of their robots, how programming and coding interacts with their robots, and strategies in building a robot for competition.

Once the initial introduction was complete, campers split into groups and were tasked with designing and building their very own robots. Campers were encouraged to be creative and use teamwork along with their new knowledge of robotics to prepare their robots for a final Battle Bots competition. On July 26^th, SOKY returned to both the Dreams in Motion and Achieving Dreams camps and held a Battle Bots competition within each camp.

The Battle Bots competition was made up of multiple rounds that consisted of two groups placing their robot in the competition ring and each robot then battling it out to determine who would be the winner. The winning team successfully pushed their opponent’s robot out of the ring or incapacitated the opponent’s robot by knocking them over or otherwise. Once victors were determined from each camp, both camps then joined together to witness the victors of each camp go head-to-head in a championship match. The winning team and their robot, aptly named Bull Dozer, received the Golden Gear Award! A team from each camp also received a Dazzling Design Award, earned by building the most unique, original, and functional robots within the competition.

We would like to extend a huge thank you to Dreams with Wings for inviting us to their camps, to the Kentucky Department of Education for providing the funding as well as to the Fern Creek High School Robotics Team for serving as our coaches and judges for the event!

For more information about the Special Olympics Kentucky Unified Robotics program, contact Michael Justice at 502-326-5002 or [email protected].