Over the last few weeks, we've had this incredible opportunity to work with the Highlander Institute and a number of Rhode Island-based educators on a super unique pilot program made possible by some of our vendor partners. Collaboratively conceived, it's allowed kids across three Rhode Island elementary schools to explore STEM solutions in their classrooms. Those technologies? A lot of them were generously donated by various partners at companies like Ozobot, Modular Robotics, Sphero, E-Blox, and Microbric as well as others from us at Eduporium!
Over 130 students have now experienced meaningful, STEM-driven learning as the 6-week pilot program is about halfway through. It will culminate at a conference on April 7 with select students from all participating schools discussing how these tech products they worked with helped enhance their education. Among the educators taking part in this program are second grade teacher, Heather Breton, from Cranston, RI, fourth grade teacher, Dayna Safran, from Barrington, RI, and four fifth grade teachers from the Johnston, RI area, including Melanie Martino, Julie Romano, Gabrielle Harwood, and Dionna Gajdowski. Here are various highlights the teachers have reported on so far!
So far, Heather and her students have explored the Sphero SPRK+ to learn more about programming and robotics. Their in-class activities involve them merging these STEM disciplines with another one—learning about coding while exploring new geometrical shapes.
Melanie has enjoyed a great amount of success thus far, especially in engaging her students with Stikbots. These little robot toys help add adventure to learning and enable children to use technology to create stop motion animations. She's also using the EdCreate Kit and the Edison Robot in successful STEM lessons. Students have been using the Edison barcodes with tape to create lines for the robot to follow, borders for it to bounce around inside of, and light for it to move towards—all while they learn about fractions.
Gabrielle has also introduced her students to an exciting form of coding using the Ozobots donated to her. Her students are getting super creative with them, even creating cursive words with built-in color codes for robots to navigate. According to her, it's a great way for them to practice spelling, vocabulary, cursive, and coding all at once!
Finally, Dionna is working with the Makey Makey GO in her classroom and, so far, her students have loved it! They have created some innovative inventions using their own conductivity and that Makey Makey piano program. According to her, they're having a blast figuring out new things they can come up with each time. Her students will also be exploring the Ozobot and Circuit Stickers at some point during the program.
Everyone at the Highlander Institute, Eduporium, and especially the educators are incredibly thankful for all donations to this fantastic program! We cannot stress enough that it would not be possible without each of these generous donations! As this pilot program continues, students will continue working with the EdTech tools as they prepare for their Blended and Personalized Learning Conference on April 7 in Providence. To find more updates on their discoveries and all the happenings surrounding this program, click below!