Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Renaissance Academy participated in the Bricks4Kidz Challenge, a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workshop brought to the school thanks to Partner in Education, Brick4Kidz. Students from Teen Living, Tech Ed and art classes had an opportunity to learn about robotics through an interdisciplinary-lesson and then applied their knowledge through hands-on activities using Legos.
Students worked in pairs to build their “pick and place” robots which basically utilize a mechanism, similar to a human hand, to grasp and move objectives. Assembling the model following the pictorial directions was more challenging than most students initially thought. They quickly realized that they had to continually test the gears to make sure they were properly connected and that appropriate parts were movable.
“This was a dynamic learning experience for our students,” said teen living teacher and partnership coordinator Elaine Lombardi. “Watching them work together to construct their ‘robots’ and then to see the look of satisfaction on their faces when their ‘machines’ worked lets me know that we met our objectives. Clearly, we need to continue to encourage an interest in STEM so the more exposure they have to opportunities like this, the better. We know career opportunities in these fields will be abundant in the 21st century.”
This was a fantastic event for our students. I highly encourage any VBCPS member to consider bringing this to their school.