Local Inventor Visits CRS

Learning Snapshot written by Jordy Hertzberg, One/Two Classroom Teacher

Students in grades 1 and 2 have been learning all about inventions.  Local maker/inventor Nik Ivanov visited One/Two this week to share his original creation – a robot which draws large-scale graphics on the wall. Nik named the robot Mural, and he shared that he was initially inspired to create it in order to delight his newborn daughter.

Nik is a software engineer who was born in Russia and moved to the United States when he was 14. In addition to helping the Highlanders learn how to pronounce their Greeting of the Week (privét – Russian for “hello”), he explained to everyone that his parents instilled in him a desire to understand how technology works by taking things like TVs apart and fixing them when he was a child.

Before seeing the robot in action, our students learned how 3D printers and writing code are the building blocks for Nik’s work. He also shared photos of the 14 different iterations of Mural which led to Wednesday’s demonstration.

Mural was set up with two pushpins, a washable purple marker, and a few large sheets of butcher paper. And once it got going, students were enthralled to watch our very own Otter mascot slowly appear on the wall! As the drawing grew, Nik spoke to his growth mindset that “each failure is a step towards success.” He also outlined how a knowledge of geometry helped him to code the robot’s movements as it travels along a trapezoidal path.

After his time in the classroom, Nik shared with the teachers that he was really impressed with the students’ questions, and that on more than a few occasions they anticipated correctly where his presentation was heading – asking about details which were set to appear on the coming slides. He really enjoyed sharing his work, and it was a memorable morning for all!

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