EVANS CITY — Students at the Evans City Elementary and Middle School had fun last week learning about robots.

The school partnered with the Carnegie Science Center to offer Rockin' Robots to students on Thursday and Friday. The program linked with the school's science, technology, engineering and math curriculum.

“The program benefited students by giving them exposure and an opportunity to apply skills that relate to STEM,” said Cassandra Doggrell, middle school assistant principal.

The program on Thursday had the fifth- and sixth-grade classes hear from Quasi, a 3-foot tall interactive robot that was accompanied to the assembly by his human counterpart, Justin Meinert, from the Carnegie Science Center's Science on the Road program.

Quasi, a silver humanoid robot with large eyes and antennae ears, told the students he is a learning robot that can sense, think, act and interact using his computer brain.

Quasi's nose hole is a camera, and when his head moves to look around, the camera scans his field of vision. He “hears” via a microphone on a speaker or through the headphones used by the human operating him.

The students played a game called “What is Quasi feeling?” when Meinert changed his eye and ear color, the shape of his eyes, the position of his ears, or the tilt of his head.

Meinert also introduced the students to binary code, which is a series of ones and zeros that can be used to program computers.

He explained that binary code is used in telesurgery, in which a surgeon can operate on a patient thousands of miles away; in space to explore rocks from the inside out to check for ancient life forms; and in other applications.

A handful of students were chosen to help Meinert carry out rudimentary demonstrations of binary code in action.

Chelsea Hoehn, a fifth grader at Evans City, said her favorite part of the assembly was interacting with Quasi.

“And we learned things we probably wouldn't learn in a book,” Chelsea said.

Her classmate, Sam Hersick, also appreciated Quasi's banter and poses.

“It's really cool because I got to see a real live robot move in person,” Sam said.

Sam said the assembly helped him understand the pulleys and other systems that are included in a robot's structure, as well as the basics of binary code.

Addlie Gifford said the binary code lessons are more interesting when demonstrated using games.

“I saw what happened with my own eyes, instead of reading about it in a book,” Addlie said. “I also learned a lot about robots.”

After the large group presentation, the students were divided into groups and sent to six “adventure stations,” where they did hands-on experiments relating to robotics.

“This STEM initiative introduces the stations, where the kids learn to create and problem solve,” said Laurie Pendred, elementary principal. “The stations provide a hands-on component.”

She said thanks to the school's parent-teacher organization, school officials have bought basic robotics components from Carnegie Mellon University.

“So we can get them exposed to those earliest programming experiences,” Pendred said.

Doggrell said the students also learn to work with their classmates, learn to express ideas, and learn from other students.

“We spend a lot of time fostering those skills,” Doggrell said.

The Rockin' Robots program was made possible by the school's PTO, Rex Energy and Armstrong.