Winter is in full swing, and some Glenlawn students are preparing for a snowball fight. But there’s a twist. First, the snowball fight isn’t until April. Second, the friendly battle will be carried out by robots. 

The Glenlawn Robotics Club was bustling with students on Thursday, Dec. 5, the day the Grade 11 and 12 students meet. Grade 9 and 10 students meet on Tuesdays. The club members gathered in groups, circled around bits of machinery, remote controls, four-wheeled robots like remote-controlled cars, and other mechanical do-dads and do-hickeys — the last of which are not the true technical terms, you may be surprised to learn, but with so many different components, a certain layperson visitor to the club was unable to note all the parts’ names in under an hour.

The students thrived in these seemingly unlimited possibilities of form and function. They displayed incredible enthusiasm to learn and discover and problem solve, nudged along by club runners and teachers David Bean and Josef Neufeld.

The club started last year, but on a smaller scale, Josef said.

“This year, it’s just exploded with interest. We’ve separated into two teams. Some older students show up on Tuesdays, as well, to help with the younger students,” he said. “It’s been great."

Bean, who wore a long blue lab coat and safety glasses on his head and gave just the slightest impression that he may be hiding a time-travelling DeLorean somewhere, took a judicious approach to handing out advice to students.

“A lot of times when you do this a long time like I have, you end up doing it in one way, over and over,” he said to a student asking how to accomplish something with their robot. “I want to see what you can come up with first. Maybe you’ll come up with a solution I never would.”

The solution the student would need to seek revolves around the robot snowball fight planned for the 2025 Skills Manitoba competition at Red River College Polytechnic. 

On April 10, 2025, the student will pit their robots against other teams of robots in a snowball fight. One robot will need to be able to throw snowballs accurately to knock over the other teams’ snowmen to score points. Another robot will work at building a wall in front of its own snowmen to protect them from the opposing onslaught. Both these can function with remote controls. And to gain access to extra snowball munitions, the team must design a fully autonomous robot that can travel to the area where extra snowballs are kept, gather them, and return them to the throwing robot. 

“We’re working on the launcher right now. And there’s not enough power to the fan,” grade-11 student Hanif Oyewole said. “We’re trying to find a solution to it. That’s what makes it fun.”

Grade-11 student Arthur Ceretti was working on the project from another angle. He was using 3D modelling software Fusion 360 to work on the design of the robots. He opened the program to reveal a realistic model on the screen of his laptop. It looked like something you’d see accompanying the Mars Rover.

“This was originally just a thing I was doing at home, but I’m going to make it into robotics,” he explained to the layperson visitor. “So. It has a 1,200W Kobalt brushless motor, and I’m trying to use universal joints… I can select the 3D printing function, select a body, then put it in a slicer software, which I could then put into a USB for the printer.”

The visitor nodded along and most definitely understood all of what Arthur said, and don’t believe anyone who tells you differently. 

Grade-11 student Heika Chui said she’s been thinking about the snowball throwing mechanism.

“Right now, I’m thinking about a wheel that pushes the snowball out. That’s what I have in my mind.” 

For Bean (and Josef and the students) the rapidly growing club has been a major success.

“I just like to see kids get excited. And before they know, they’re learning things — STEM-based stuff. And from there, they’re building bigger stuff, cooler stuff, and they’re enjoying learning,” Bean said.