Spring beak often consists of basking out in the sun and enjoying the bloom of colorful flowers and plants, reading your favorite book, catching up on your favorite shows, or just relaxing at your best. This past Spring break was spent differently for a group of Arroyo Valley High School students.
A group of high school students spent their Spring break working hard researching. More specifically, studying the mechanics of robots. The research projects turned out to be both educational and fun. Students learned how to build robotic characters such as animals and space creatures, which are commonly presented in amusement parks and themed shows.
The students were all a part of Garner Holt Production’s Education through Imagination program that is in partnership with Project Ani-Vation. Garner Holt is originally from San Bernardino and now owns Garner Holt Productions, which produces animatronic figures for entertainment locations such as Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood. Project Ani-Vation is helping students learn how to build animatronic figures and characters the same way Garner Holt did as a young teenager.
Holt has created a product called SPARK-E that stands for Specialized Personal Animatronic and Robotics Kit for Education. The kit can be personally customized in functions and taught as early as the third grade. The Ani-Vation student members were divided in separate teams where they picked topics for their robot. The characters were then made up differently by their specific wigs, costumes and programmed movements. The students were also encouraged to write scripts and create slide shows for the themes of each animatronic character. Animatronic characters are an important part of robotics because it teaches both girls and boys the importance of understanding the mechanics of movement. The agency of animatronics relies on the ability to create movement that eventually showcases a nice image or transforms a story. This educational project encourages students to learn the mechanics of robotics and possibly pursue the ever-growing field of engineering.