Robotics & Literature—Watch

Watch students merge literature and robotics using a Hummingbird Robotics Kit. On the Hummingbird site, you’ll find two videos—one is the presentation of Robert Frost’s Fire & Ice and the other shows how the students created their poetry theater. It’s not just in language arts that you can integrate engineering with course content. Creative teachers and students are finding ways to have fun with the electronics kits in science, art, math, and social studies, as well as, technology. Hummingbird kits are priced below $200 and include tutorials, hardware, and software that works using Windows, Mac, and Linux. On the Arts & Bots curricula site, you’ll find full curricula, after-school activities, project ideas, and classroom resources.

Why Robotics?

In Minnesota, students can join varsity robotics teams, and these teams have become the second (the first is basketball) most popular “sport”.  Minnesota hosts a State Robotics Competition, and schools give varsity letters for playing on robotics teams. Because the cost of robotics kits and keeping teams going comes to about $10,000 a year, teams are often dependent upon corporate sponsors and community donations. School leaders and team advisors praise how much this program has done for team members. One commented, “100% of the kids go professional” with many entering STEM careers. The program generates enthusiasm in schools, thus enhancing the importance of studies in robotics, mathematics, science, and engineering. With the success of high school teams, non-varsity teams are emerging in middle and elementary schools all over Minnesota.

Intel’s Schools of Distinction

Intel’s Schools of Distinction awards went to schools that “provide a rich, rigorous science or mathematics curriculum and represent some of the most successful educational programs in the country. The company distributed $560,000 in cash grants and awards to the six winning schools. The Star Innovator Award, with an extra $15,000 and other prizes totaling $100,000, went to Ossining High School in New York. The school boasts having project-based, hands-on science studies since 1988. Mentorships and community partnerships are essential to the program, which includes robotics projects in which students design and build their own robots.  Other winners were in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington. Read about all the winners to get ideas for your school mathematics and science programs.

Turning Kids on to Science with Quadrotors

Vijay Kumar, Penn State, and his engineering team build robots that are fantastic flyers. The little flying quadrotors (agile aerial robots) monitor their flight by where the neighboring plane is. They can come within inches of each other, maintain stable flight, and play musical instruments while in the air. They can pick up objects and put them where specified in a blueprint. Able to use their lasers to build a map of their environment, they are able to figure out where to fly without anyone guiding them. You and your students will be amazed by this video, and it may serve as an impetus for students to take on the STEM subjects.