Bookworm robot helps children find the fun in reading
By Elli Morris CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Educator Kenneth Holmes and his robot, Busta Bookworm, will visit elementary schools to encourage students to embrace reading.

If you like to read, whom do you have to thank for that gift? Was it a parent, an aunt who read stories to you as a child or maybe a teacher who took you to the library where you could have your pick of the literary world for free?

A love of books usually starts at an early age, and unfortunately, not every child develops an appreciation for the written word. For many students, reading is an unpleasant chore; it's part of school that must be endured. But Kenneth Holmes, technology education specialist at L.C. Bird High and Swift Creek Middle schools, is hoping to change that with the help of Busta Bookworm, a five-foot-tall robot that he designed and built.

Busta Bookworm is a talking, rolling robot that goes to elementary schools, interacts with children through a hidden speaker and, hopefully, gets children excited about reading. "On the secondary level (of education), when you give reading assignments, you have students that do not like to read or are not good readers," Holmes notes.

This observation motivated the creative technical educator to come up with a robot that "could talk, interact with kids. If you affect something on the elementary level, motivate or enhance reading or get them excited about reading, hopefully it will carry on through to the middle and high school levels."

Busta Bookworm, who has several "friends and things" he takes with him on his school trips, is made of 12-inch diameter flexible tubing, a remote control vehicle with tracks instead of wheels, metal braces, Styrofoam, wood glue and a speaker. As Holmes is fond of telling his technology students, every project "starts with one single line" put down on paper. "I went to the library and went online to find what a bookworm would look like. It gave me something to go on, the basic appearance, what the kids expect to see when they think of a bookworm," explains Holmes.

Exhibiting his true veteran educator prowess, Holmes involved his secondary level technology students in the process of creating the robot and they, in turn, came up with some innovative ideas to help bring the bookworm to life. For example, the robot was initially going to have a tape recording inside, but Holmes realized that wouldn't allow interaction with the kids. One student suggested using a two-way radio or walkie-talkie, but they decided that would create too much feedback. Eventually, they settled on installing a speaker behind the bookworm's big white grin. Holmes clips a small microphone onto his own shirt, which allows him to interact with students as though Busta Bookworm were doing the talking.

Through his smiling white clothcovered mouth, the robot tells the elementary students, "Busta Bookworm wants you to know that it's cool to read and make good grades in school." Other times, Busta Bookworm not only gets the students excited about reading, he throws in a math or history lesson on the side.

Holmes, who was an education administrator for 11 years and has two master's degrees, has created a few other robots in the past. One robot was designed to monitor school hallways. As it roams the corridors, it advises students, "Please clear the hallways. Please clear the hallways."

For Holmes, it's a matter of "not being afraid of being innovative. As an educator, you can't be ho-hummic about what you do. There's good and bad out there waiting for them outside of school. If the school is ho-hummic, then they are going to think about the other stuff, like video games."

Holmes by no means lacks energy and enthusiasm for his students, his creations and his desire to help present and future students. He sums up his commitment to teaching, saying, "You still have to try and meet the challenge."

Busta Bookworm is sure to help him do that.