Spike Prime for Engineering and Programming Greatness!
Help me give my students advanced programming and engineering skills as they learn to program and build using the new Spike Prime hub and pieces and Scratch.
Practicing a skill on paper and seeing your ideas played out on a game field are two different experiences. This year, we have used our available technology to learn block programming and practice our math and science skills in a variety of formats. A love for learning has been reinvigorated!
We learn in a very ethnically diverse, public school that includes students of all academic and economic levels.
Our building contains 30 regular education classrooms in grades 4-6. This year, we have begun to implement a district-wide "Mass Customized Learning" initiative. This allows students to move at their own pace and pursue areas of personal interest. My fifth grade class consists of 21 wonderful students who love to learn! Each day they bring with them enthusiasm and a willingness to try new and challenging things. They are diligent and hard-working and have learned to take care of each other as a learning community, regardless of what they may face at the end of each day.
My Project
If my project is fully funded, my 5th grade students and FIRST Lego League team members will be learning to build and program a robot using Scratch based programming. As our school takes on an advanced STEM initiative, we are looking for ways for students to integrate science, technology, engineering, and math into everything. Robotics is the perfect blend of all elements. If you add collaboration, teamwork, research, innovative thinking, presentations skills and problem solving, you now have FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League robotics (FLL).
Just imagine how excited learners will be and the connections they will make, as they engineer and build a robot that can physically complete tasks, and program it using a language they are already learning.
Currently, I introduce my 52 classroom students to programming by developing animated and interactive stories using the Scratch programming language. We then see different programming languages in action through Dash and Dot, Ozobots, and Lego EV3 robots. My 16 FIRST Lego League robotics team members take that learning to the next level, by building their robot to complete missions and compete against teams in 4th-8th grade. However, our technology is becoming outdated and the EV3 language is completely different from what they have done before, making it a challenge for 4th and 5th graders to learn. The new Lego Spike Prime robot uses the Scratch programming language and provides sensors and motors that are more precise than the EV3 we currently use. In FLL, this will allow our teams of 4th-6th graders to successfully compete against older students as Spike Prime makes its way through the FIRST world.
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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. Wertz and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
