1-EXPERIMENT
“Okay. Here we go again,” said fifteen-year-old Joshua Moore. For the seventh time, he was testing his white and black hand-made robot and for some reason, it won’t operate the way he wanted it to. He picked up his controller that his little sister had once mistaken for a game controller and positioned his fingers on the switch.
Please work! he prayed.
Joshua wiggled the black switch forward and the robot slowly stood on its four mechanical legs. The eyes on its rectangular-shaped head turned into a bluish color with the inner black rectangle surrounding it. He sucked in his lopes and pushed the “FORWARD” button on the controller. The robot walked towards Joshua but in a crooked way.
The legs abruptly broke down making the robot drop down to its knees.
THUMP!
The eyes went out. Joshua kept pushing buttons and there was still no sign of communication.
Joshua threw down the controller. “Oh, my God!”
He picked up the robot and looked at it in its invisible eyes. He could see his dark complexion through the screen.
“Why won’t you work?!” he ranted, shaking the robot up and down. “What am I doing wrong?”
He sat the robot down on the desk and plopped down on his chair rubbing his red bloodshot eyes.
He thought about giving up. All the coding sequences, all the hours spent putting it together, were spent for nothing.
Joshua picked up the robot. “How can I get this fixed in time for the fair?”
He heard the basement door open. His mother Crystal walked in wearing a black dress and high heels. She also had curly black hair that touched her shoulders. She walked in with a disapproving expression.
“Joshua!”she snapped. “What are you doing up this late?”
Her voice startled Joshua. “Mom?”
“It is two in the morning! You need to be in bed. You know you have school in the morning!”
Joshua picked up his cellphone. 2:02 am.
“Oh no! Is it really this late?!”
He ran his hands on his cutted hair and spinned around facing his mother.
“Mom, I am so sorry. I promise it won’t happen again!”he apologized, putting his hands together as if he was praying.
Crystal crossed her arms. “You need to shut all of this down. You’ve been down here since breakfast and you’ve even skipped out on dinner.
Joshua huffed. “Yeah well maybe if this robot actually worked, we wouldn’t have this problem.”
“The robot is still not working?”asked Crystal.
Joshua shook his head.
“I really think this is a waste of time. This structure is clearly not working and it’s distracting you from your schooling. I really think you should give it all up and focus on your grades.”
Joshua’s mouth dropped open. “Give up? I can’t just give up! I’ve worked my butt off for weeks to get this thing working! I have to keep trying to win this science fair. This is a scholarship opportunity to the most prestigious engineering school in the nation I’m talking about!”
It was true. In November, his robotics teacher, Mr.Myers introduced the science and engineering fair. This first place winner would receive a $50,000 dollar scholarship to Leverton School of Engineering while second and third place would just earn half the scholarship.
The scholarship incentivized Joshua to compete in the fair with his best friend Alvan Campbell. His only best friend.
It has always been Joshua’s dream to attend Leverton. This would land him into a good college and eventually would lead him to a good job in the robotics field.
It took him weeks to come up with the design. Months to put the robot together and now it’s March and this stupid robot still wouldn’t work! The science fair is now in two weeks.
“I understand your motivation for the scholarship,”said Crystal. “But even if you do win, there’s still a small chance of your acceptance to Leverton. It’s already almost the end of the quarter and so far, the only decent grades you have are in math, robotics, and lunch! These schools look at that. Your scholarship can easily get denied.”
Joshua imagined himself receiving a letter from Leverton only to hear that his project was a huge waste of time. How embarrassing would that be?
Dear Joshua Moore,
We regret to inform you that your scholarship to Leverton School of Engineering has been denied. After a thorough review of your academic record, we came to a conclusion that your academic status is far below our qualifications for admission. We know this disappointing news for you but we promise that there will be more opportunities in the future!
Thank you for your time!
Dean of Administration
Leverton School of Math, Science, and Engineering
“Now I have some very important news to share with you. I was going to tell you tomorrow but since you’re already up, I might as well tell you now,”Crystal told him.
Right after Crystal said those words, an idea sparked Joshua’s mind. His mother’s words completely censored out of his focus as he divergently thought of a unique design of a perfect robot.
He has seen plenty of experiments with robots performing daily tasks like a human. He has also noticed on phone calls where they had automated voice messages where a robot would communicate with the person instead of an actual person. What if he could design something similar to that? Not only will he win the scholarship but his invention will benefit a lot of people. He could see himself on stage walking to receive his scholarship. He turned back to his desk and grabbed his notebook and pen and drew a little sketch of a two-legged robot looking almost like a representation of a robot from Transformers.
“Joshua!”Crystal called. “Did you listen to anything I just said?”
“Oh yeah!”Joshua replied with a thumbs-up.
“Cool!”
He closed his notebook and ran upstairs to the basement. “I’ll be going to bed now.”
He kissed his mother and ran to his bedroom.
Joshua’s bedroom was a mess. Clothes were scattered on the floor and his desk was covered in unfinished school work and robot models. He turned on his lamp by his bunk bed which he used to share with his twin brother before he passed.
Joshua flopped down on his pillow and stared at his new design.
“You’re going to be the main attraction baby,”he said.
He sat the drawing down on the nightstand and switched off the light.
