Taking the Future of Manufacturing Into High Schools

ANNA, Ohio — In early May, in a classroom at Anna High School, five seniors focused on controlling a canary yellow robotic arm. They took turns tapping code into a pendant connected to the arm.

Their assignment was to make the arm grab and move a bunch of AA batteries, one by one, from one box to another. Along the way, the arm was supposed to circle each battery inside an empty Folgers coffee canister, then return it to its original position without knocking any over.

Something in their code was off, though, and a few of the batteries wobbled and fell. The students, who were learning about industrial robots and other technologies used in advanced manufacturing, took the hiccup in stride, examining lines of code for errors and cracking jokes. Their teacher, K. C. Needles, offered encouragement, but didn’t tell them how to fix their mistake.

One of the students, Jarred Seigle, liked how their task was similar to what he’d seen robots do on assembly lines in Honda’s engine plant a few miles outside the center of the village. “This is something we could all be doing in a few years if we’re working in a factory,” said Jarred, 18, who is planning to major in mechanical engineering at the University of Toledo. “We might be programming robots.”

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