The 1st Robotics Workshop Outside of Manila, Held at Trece Martires City National High School

TRECE MARTIRES, CAVITE – Last March 14, 2025, a Robotics Science Experiment Workshop was held at the Trece Martires City National High School. This workshop was held in partnership with Focus Systems (Official Website), who awarded the school with a free Science workshop for their wonderful research presentation entitled “Molluscicidal Activity of Akapulko Ethanolic Leaves Extract Against Golden Apple Snails” which they presented at the Science Castle Philippines last January. (News Release). The workshop made use of the G-Robots made by the Vietnamese edu-tech startup, GaraSTEM (Official Website).

The workshop was attended by 20 Students all coming from the Grade 9 level. With the workshop having the main theme of “ROBO-QUEST: Building Efficient minds“, the students were taught about the Lean Mindset and its importance of minimizing errors and maximizing efficiency.

The students had 3 activities throughout the workshop:

(1) Robot Building

The first activity consisted of building the robot from the robot kit wherein the students were given instructions through their workbook on how to build the robot. Although the students initially had difficulties in assembling the robot, all of them were able to completely build it in time. In this activity, they were taught about the concept of planning and designing which serves to minimize errors. Most of the students were able to plan when they built the robot, but through the lecture they were made more aware of what they were able to do and what its significance is in their daily activities.

(2) Motor and Sensor Calibration

The second activity consisted of calibrating the robot's motors and line sensor. The rotational power varies per motor and the students would need to calibrate it for the robot to go straight forward, while the line sensor needs to be calibrated to detect the black line of the race track. The students had an easy time calibrating the line sensor, but calibrating the motors proved to be a challenge. In this activity, they were taught about the concept of process optimization which is used to check the equipment if they are functioning as intended. This made the students realize that if they actually used the robots without checking its equipment, they would have gotten varying results, and this could also be applied to the usage of their daily equipment in order to minimize accidents.

(3) Line Tracing Programming

The third activity consisted of line tracing programming where the students were tasked to program the robot to automatically follow the black line of the race track. The students initially found it difficult to grasp the concept of turning as to which wheel should be stronger when they need to turn. Fortunately, the students were able to figure out the program and all teams finished the line tracing track on time. For this activity, they were taught the concept of problem-solving and adjusting. This lesson taught them the proper skills and mindset they would need when suddenly faced with challenges in life. All of the students were able to exemplify their problem solving skills, and the workshop serves to make them more aware of this skill that they would need to keep using in their day to day encounters.

With the Robotics workshop coming to a close, Ms. Edilyn Odero, the workshop Teaching Manager, emphasized the usage of the lean mindset in their daily activities in order to promote self effectiveness. Through the lean mindset, the students found out the importance of eliminating wasteful resources in order to lessen errors while improving efficiency. The students expressed their enthusiasm for the workshop, noting its practical lessons in robotics and everyday life.

Below are some of the student comments regarding the workshop:

• “I would like to join again because of the powerful message that these workshops can provide. In addition, the engaging tasks that were assigned to the learners are enjoyable and fun”
• “I think it really piqued my interest and a workshop similar to this would allow me to combine creativity, intellect, and fun which would be an impactful learning experience for me”
• “From my past experience with robotics, I'm not really interested in robotics because for me it was kinda boring, BUT now I was really grateful that I joined this workshop, I have no regrets at all because I realized how fun and engaging this robotics workshop and in the whole time I was just smiling and I felt really happy at the whole event.”

 

And of course, before the workshop ended, all of the students were tasked to disassemble their robots and put all of the parts back into the kits. This is another concept of the lean mindset as it helps create a safe and organized environment for their classmates or future colleagues in the workplace.

For any questions or inquiries regarding the Robotics workshop, or if you have interests in doing a Science Experiment Workshop in your school, please do contact [email protected] with special attention to Dr. Yev Dulla and Mr. Alexander Gali.