Bruce Marsh of the Firehouse Cultural Center, with an Apple MacBook and components for a programmable robot from the Lego Mindstorms system, is a renowned artist and a highly esteemed longtime professor from USF. Expanding the art of science and technology to young people is among his passions. Mitch Traphagen photos.
Beginning next week, on March 18, ten or more young people will have the opportunity to get hands-on experience with some fun, cool and serious tech in classes taught by someone who knows all about advanced techology.
The Firehouse Cultural Center in Ruskin is introducing a robotics class for young people ages 10 to 14. Jim Reve, a professional engineer, a teacher at Lennard High School and the founder and leader of the school’s ever-increasingly successful robotics club, will teach the class.
Reve is no stranger to robotics and fascinating technology. Before retiring to become a teacher, he was part of NASA’s Cassini Project — an interplanetary spacecraft that launched in 1997 and is still researching and providing valuable data about Saturn to this day.
There were a number of “firsts” with Cassini: it was the first spacecraft to enter Saturn’s orbit and, a decade later, its mission remains ongoing. It also successfully launched the Huygens probe to Saturn’s moon, Titan, the first interplanetary landing in the outer solar system.
While some of Reve’s signature past work is still at work in the far reaches of space, his heart, soul and mind are firmly affixed to Earth, successfully engaging a new mission of opening the doors of science to students in the South County area. Since its recent founding, the Lennard Robotics Club has won numerous awards for engineering and innovation.
Jim Reve, an engineer, teacher and the founder and leader of the highly successful Lennard High School Robotics Club, will teach the class beginning next week. Reve, who worked on the Cassini project, a spacecraft with an ongoing mission orbiting Saturn, has a passion for helping young people to reach for the stars.
And now he will make the drive from Lennard on Wednesday evenings to open that same door of discovery, wonder and opportunity to younger students at the Firehouse Cultural Center.
“People love Jim Reve,” said artist Bruce Marsh of the Firehouse Cultural Center. “He’s an incredibly good teacher and he is so enthusiastic.”
According to Marsh, the robotics class at the Firehouse Cultural Center will run each Wednesday for six weeks, from 6 to 8 p.m., beginning on March 18. There is direct space for 10 students, although up to 20 students could take part if students paired up. The cost of the program is $120, although scholarships are available to cover that cost, if needed.
“We have some funding for this,” Marsh said. “So we can offer scholarships to kids if their families can’t afford it. We ask them to simply write a paragraph about the class, why they might want to take the class.”
The class will involve Apple MacBook Pro computers along with the Lego Mindstorms system. The Lego system includes a block with a programmable computer. Using the MacBooks, youngsters can program the robot they build to perform certain tasks — or even respond to sound or light.
Of course, Marsh, a highly regarded artist and former art professor, also sees art applications as well.
“They can put markers on them [the robotic vehicles] and kids can make drawings using their robots,” he said with enthusiasm. “I’ve always been interested in computer applications and art.”
The robotics class will be a hands-on experience for the young participants. They will program their robots by dropping and dragging instructions on the MacBooks rather than writing out lines of code. The computers and the Lego Mindstorms programmable vehicles will be provided, and no experience or equipment will be required of the students.
And at the top of it all is Jim Reve, a man with his work still in space, still providing answers about a distant planet; a man who appears driven to help young people to reach for the stars, to see just how amazing science and technology can be to not only use but, far more importantly, to create. And with him, with an intense interest in making it possible, are the staff at the Cultural Center. To both Reve and Marsh, the answers are out there, for questions and problems both current and future, and will be found only by encouraging our youth to seek them out. Whether in space or right here on Earth.
And Marsh has further dreams for expanding the art of science at the Cultural Center.
“We would love to see something like a technology club here, maybe having an open studio on Saturday mornings with computers available where kids could come in and work on stuff,” he said.
He also spoke of future plans for programs to help encourage young girls to take part in science and technology. Those programs will take place with the help of a generous grant from the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.
“We do have a young man who is a senior engineering student at USF, he’s going to teach a course that is partially electronics, partially programming,” Marsh said. “He’s going to use a small chip that is essentially a computer. You can program the chip; you can plug in sensors and motors. The chip comes on a board that has digital and analog inputs and outputs. It is hugely flexible. Students can start with some simple projects, writing the code and wiring up the board for that. And then they’ll go on from there.”
Parents interested in enrolling their children in next week’s robotics course, may sign up or receive more information by calling 813-645-7651 or by visiting the Firehouse Cultural Center website at www.firehouseculturalcenter.org.
The Firehouse Cultural Center is located at 101 1st Ave. NE in Ruskin, near the southeast corner of U.S. 41 and Shell Point Road.
