Students test home-built robots and communication skills in "Mission to Mars" exercise

What do you get when you put Emporia State University education majors in a room with physics students from a Wichita middle school, and turn them loose with remote-controlled robots in a quest to capture pool balls?

Under the direction of Dr. Matt Seimears, ESU assistant professor of early childhood and elementary teacher education, you have the Mission to Mars Science Olympiad 2009.

It took place in ESU's Visser Hall atrium Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Two sections of ESU's Block I education students built robots that competed with robots constructed by two teams of students from Steve Loos' eighth-grade physics class at USD 259's Mayberry Magnet Middle School in Wichita.

Last Updated October 28, 2009>