Robotics for Everyone: A Sixth-Grade Class Builds Their First Robot

Natalia Ogorelysheva, PhD candidate at the Faculty of Computer Science at TU Dortmund University, conducted a robotics workshop at a local school in Dortmund. The session was designed for students with no prior experience and built around a simple but powerful premise: everyone can do robotics.
Working with Otto DIY robots [1], the class explored what components make up a robot, what role AI plays in robotic systems, and how hardware and software come together. Within 50 minutes, every group had assembled a working robot. Several groups moved on to their first programming steps before the session ended. When asked at the close of the workshop who had enjoyed it, every hand in the room went up.
The workshop reflects a broader commitment to making robotics accessible beyond university walls. As a member of the Diversity Commission of the Faculty of Computer Science and as a researcher working on Safety and Anomaly Management in Multi-Robot Systems, Natalia regularly brings robotics into schools to reach students who may never have considered the field as something for them.
