My students need a VEX robotics kit to serve as a construction kit for grades 3rd-5th. Robotics encourages student led problem solving and collaboration skills.
This project will benefit STEM students from our third through fifth grade classes. Students in our school typically come from a low income, small community with many challenges in their background knowledge. They are bright, out of the box thinkers who would benefit from experiences that take them out of the traditional classroom and facilitate creativity.
Our school has students who are clever, inquisitive, and willing to try new things.
They are natural born helpers and leaders. As they learn new things, they share it with the community and make it an even better place to be.
My Project
Students in our school will use this robot each year all year long for collaborative construction, development and competition. They have one robot right now per 9 students to use. That doesn't give them much hands on time with the robotics kit when split between so many students. We already know the program is of interest to the students because we piloted the program last year. With an increase in interest, we need to support our team to accurately represent in competitions with another robot.
Students have proven their robotics knowledge with an ability to build and improve the robots through after school challenges and during competitions in our state.
To expand this supply means to lower the ratio of students and they would be more hands-on in smaller groups (one robot per 6 students per class). Robotics is not exclusive to students who excel or show high ability. They are for all students, curious and creative. More robots creates twice the amount of innovation and strategy. Robotics is taught in our STEM classes for these grade levels during the school day.
Robotics building has made our students think more concretely and spatially. They are able to follow the engineering designs given online but also come up with new designs not tried yet. The engineering design process has engaged students in planning more and being willing to be wrong and try again. We are preparing our STEM field professionals of the future!
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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 Mrs. Tingwald and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
