Pinpoints Pinpoints Magazine Spring 2020 | Page 15

The World of Robots
“Classified area! High tech! No photos of large portion of area!” Signage was all over the place
at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC), an operating unit within the
Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Megan Conley was all
over the place too. As teacher became student, Mrs. Conley widened her horizon and the
horizon of each in her classroom.
In 1959 when The Lexington School opened,
robots were a thing of the future, the dreams of the
space age. Today, robots are navigating practically
every square inch of Mrs. Conley’s room. On the
first floor of the Academic Center, past the hallway
row of brown silhouette trees on the wall, students
are thoroughly immersed in VEX Robotics.
Two years ago, when Mrs. Conley learned of plans
for the Academic Center, her first thought was,
“How can I help?” Translated, that means “How can
we continue to advance science and technology, our
STEAM education?” Her strong background in the
health science field, her years as a former chemistry
teacher, and her teaching fifth through eighth graders
at a career technology school pre-engineering camp
combine for tremendous benefit of her TLS students.
Having witnessed robotics competitions through
her previous teaching positions, Mrs. Conley knew
a robotics club would fit well at TLS. So it has.
Second through fifth graders fill the popular club of
18 students. Nine sixth through eighth graders make
up the older group. Mrs. Conley has set impressive
goals for the club: building a team competitive in the
local, state, national, and international arena. She
points out, “The same program of robotics we do
here in this classroom is being conducted in China,
Australia, and Germany. Louisville, Kentucky, hosted
the 2019 VEX Robotics World Championship. It
returns to Louisville in April, 2020.
In this first year for robotics as part of after-school
enrichment, Mrs. Conley gives tremendous accolades
to Jackson Cornett ’17 , who volunteers with the
club each Tuesday. He is a natural for this position
with both his TLS background and his robotics
experience. Jackson is a 12-year TLSer, Montessori
through eighth grade, as well as a longtime (though
not quite since Montessori) enthusiast of all things
robotic. Completely at home, then, Jackson explains,
“I’ve built similar robots from similar robotic kits
that these students are using. I programmed their
movements and different features, and reactivity
to different scenarios.” He enjoys his new role in
the new classroom, saying, “I help students learn
to create that bridge between hard-to-understand
directions and easy-to-see perspectives.”
It’s easy to see that Mrs. Conley’s room is a highly
classified area. It’s high tech. And photos of the large
portion are enthusiastically encouraged.
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