My students LOVE technology, but they are scared of math. Every year I have to "teach" students into loving math. Every year they start out thinking that "math is hard" or "I just don't have a math brain." And every year I have to coax them into believing that math is fun, and they can do it!
I teach in a semi-rural school system in Georgia.
My classroom is a mixed-ability classroom, consisting of rich and poor students, students from educated and from undereducated families. Most of their parents work outside the community because of a lack of jobs within the county. My students work hard and are generally good citizens, but they do not dream big. They do not see the myriad of possibilities awaiting them because they have not been exposed to anything other than the few possibilities within our county. The areas surrounding our county are rapidly developing jobs that require STEM backgrounds. I want my kids to be able to compete for these jobs.
My Project
Using the EV3 Lego Robotics system and the teacher's guide, my children will learn how to program robots. While programming the robots to meet different challenges, my students will strengthen their math skills, their logical thinking skills, and their ability to work cooperatively with others to solve challenging problems. We will set up this first robot as a math center, and students will work in pairs to solve programming challenges involving color, light, and movement. Students will also be encouraged to develop challenges for others to solve. This will build self-efficacy within my classroom.
Donations to the "I Am A Robot" project will begin to expose my students to a world that is larger than our county.
It will open their minds to a wide range of possibilities that await them when they graduate. "Playing" with robots will show students that math, science, and technology are intertwined and that math is useful and interesting. I think that this project will begin to create a community of creative thinkers within my classroom.
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