As the teacher of gifted and talented students in our rural, Title 1 school, I have the pleasure of teaching students who are always eager and ready to delve into the hands-on, real-world learning that takes place whenever they are given a STEM activity or challenge. Students in my gifted classes, without fail, always ask me the following question upon entering my classroom: "Ms. Howard, do we get to work on a STEM project today?"
My goal is to make sure that the brightest of our community are provided with every opportunity and material needed for STEM activities.
These vital activities foster creative thinking, problem solving, and a host of other authentic learning skills they will need for future careers and jobs that are almost assuredly going to include some form of STEM skills.
My Project
The Edison programmable robot would be a way to provide my youngest students, first and second graders, the opportunity to easily learn the basics of coding, engineering and robotics.
Coding is basically another language our students need to learn to understand.
We are in the digital age and working with and understanding the technology around them is vital to preparing them for the future.
Edison’s robotic capabilities can be easily unlocked through simple barcode programs. Children as young as four years old can begin to explore coding and robotics using the unique barcodes to activate pre-set programs. Edison robots are designed to enable students to progress through three different programming languages as their skills increase, working from icon-based drag-and-drop coding, through block-based coding and on to text-based programming. Edison robots are also compatible with the LEGO brick building system, which will help prepare my youngest students for our First Lego League program when they get older. The robots can be used as the programmable base for an unlimited amount of engineering and STEM projects. Edison robotics projects will help facilitate my students communication, creativity, math, writing skills in order to foster their confidence to fully engage in our digital era.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Howard and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
