Dark Side robot team raises awareness about vision impairment
The Dark Side robotics team is gearing up to test its first attempt at bringing a robot to life.
The team, in its first year, includes eight students from across Iowa with and without vision impairments who came together to compete in the First Robotics Competition. The experience provides an opportunity for students with limited or no vision to program robots and learn skills such as using power tools safely, the coaches said.
However, team members and coaches said it's just as much about showcasing and acknowledging their abilities as it is about helping them access the programming.
First-time robotics coach and West High teacher Maureen Head said her work with the team exposed her to the range of tasks people without full sight can accomplish.
“It’s kind of made me realize how flawed my thinking was before," Head said.
The team, with help from mentors at the University of Iowa, has been preparing for a regional competition March 23-25 in Cedar Falls at the University of Northern Iowa's McLeod Center. They used tools like a talking tape measurer and voice-to-screen reading software to build a robot according to specifications laid out by First, a not-for-profit STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — engagement program that facilitates robotics competitions. This year's competition has a steam power theme, and teams gain points by building airship robots that toss balls into boiler props and transport gears.
The Dark Side is hosted by Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Iowa's Vinton-based statewide system for providing visual impairment services. It has three members from West High, including Danny Grimes, who has a visual impairment.
Grimes, 17, a junior, said he gets questions sometimes about how he accomplishes basic tasks, like eating a meal. He said he hopes The Dark Side's presence at the competition helps illustrate how "we can have goals and we can complete them.”
"There are many people that are not aware," he said.
Grimes, who helped form the team, said that, although science isn't his strong suit, he wanted to try something new. He said he helped out with a little bit of everything during the robot-building season and had fun joking with his teammates.
Sara Larkin, a team mentor and math consultant at the vision services system, said the idea for the team came about more than a year ago when she was researching ways of teaching computer programming to blind students.
She applied for an Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council grant that provided $4,000 for the initiative and funded additional costs through a $6,000 rookie grant through First.
Larkin said she watched the team grow and benefit in ways "more numerous than I can count." They learned skills as simple as the difference between a Phillips head and flat head screwdriver, but also learned to operate power tools like drills, Larkin said.
She said sighted people sometimes worry too much about people with limited or no vision hurting themselves. However, with the right safety precautions — like awareness of body and hand placement — they can be just as safe as anyone else while using power tools and during other activities, she said.
Coach Jennifer Bliss, a STEM consultant for the vision services system, said the team, regardless of its performance at the regional competition, will walk away with valuable benefits, including life skills, new friends, experience with troubleshooting and exposure to STEM experts.
“The robot, I think, in the end, is secondary," Bliss.
Gabe Trappe, 16, a sophomore on the team without a vision impairment, said he is ready for the competition next month, where he will drive the robot. He said his work with the team has been informed by having a close friend with a vision impairment who does woodworking on his own.
“I think it’s really important to people that are sometimes limited to be able to connect with people that are also visually impaired," he said.