As I want to take my rural school into the future there are many obstacles in the way. It seems that the old school of paper and pencil are out the door. What is needed is the future usage of technology and exposure to what our world has become and is going. I have been so inspired with the workshops I have taken and the webinars that I have watched to leap the students into a STEM or STEAM way of learning that I so want to do it. Hindrances is supplies. School budgets are tight and there is not any allocated money in order for myself to engage the students. I signed up for teaching two elective classes for this year for STEAM. Why? It is our future and it makes the kids think outside of the box. They are not bored! I tried an experimental elective class last school year and I had a waiting list. However, I paid personally for what I provided for the kids or relied on recycled materials and let the kids go with it. Amazing creativity!
My Project
I will use this technology for hands-on activities that would normally would not be available for my school to build and create cross-curricular activities.
What I discovered last year is that coding and robotics are definitely an integral part of their future.
An example of what I plan on doing with the Sphero is to do races with a course established. Students can collaborate and use team building skills to decide the best route while using math to calibrate time, speed and distance. Creativity is a must with many of these items. Challenges as fair as how tall can you build a tower or can you make up a creation and design so classmates can replicate. Students can be required to design items with certain angles naming angles and measure degrees or height and be expected to use a ruler to convert from centimeters to inches and use estimation skills. The amazing thing is that all of our students are talented. By giving them the materials to work with, all students can be engaged and feel positive about their accomplishments. I would appreciate anything on the item list. Anything to enhance my classes of STEAM will be greatly appreciated.
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