It’s no shock Deb Vaughan’s classroom is one of the most popular spots in the Sidney School District.
After all, it’s filled with more than an estimated 1,000,000 Legos.
These Legos aren’t made for playing, however.
Vaughan uses them with her Elementary School Robotics classes. With these Legos, students learn to design, build and program robots to do different things.
In its second year, the program at the Elementary School has gone from fifth and sixth graders to including third and fourth graders. The classes are engaging and hands-on and students have shown they’ll come in during free time to work more extensively on their projects.
It’s not just a version of recess, though. All the while, as they build their robots, they are learning important educational and life lessons. With no individual projects, they learn teamwork, problem solving and many applications of the STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Math) standards.
Vaughan, who has been teaching for 23 years and has been at Sidney since 2004, noted attendance hasn’t been an issue with her classes. Some students who have missed classes in the past have had perfect attendance once they got involved with the Robotics program.
“That’s an indicator of how well the kids buy into the program,” said Vaughan, who also ran two Robotics summer camps. “In this course, it’s friendly because it’s Legos. They work because they want to make the car go faster.
“In math, you learn circumference because you are going to be tested on it,” she continued. “In Robotics, you learn circumference because it might help you win the race. You want to learn it.”
The program runs differently for each grade. For third, fourth and fifth graders, they attend the class every fourth day, so depending on the week a group might have the class once or twice. Sixth graders go every day for a 10-week span. At any given time, there could be more than 100 teams working on building and programming a robot of some kind.
The basic premise of the program, though, is students learn engineering and programming aspects of Robotics. Students get to deal with real-life challenges and will often be paired with people they may not have chosen on their own. They also adapt leadership roles and learn to manage time.
“It helps builds your education for people who want to be an engineer,” said Adrienne Paternoster, a sixth grader who noted she has wanted to be an engineer since she was a third grader. “Sometimes when doing the final project, it’s stressful. But then the adrenaline kicks in.”
Each grade is also at a different level.
Third and fourth graders work with items such as gears and drag-and-drop programming. Fifth graders have built cars. All three of these grades use 2-D models to create a 3-D version.
Sixth graders are using new Lego EV3 kits to help them expand on what was learned last year. Those students have worked on projects such as a vehicle equipped with a robotic arm, one equipped with a robotic crane and a vehicle with a trailer.
The best part of these specially designed robots? The students designed them and with software on laptops, they program them as well.
“(Vaughan) takes on new challenges and does a lot of things with students,” said Tom Barrowman, an educational consultant with Lego whose territory includes most of New England as well as the majority of New York. “I thought she was going beyond what she and the students could do. But she challenges students to design and build things on their own. … Most schools build basic models and program. She’s going way beyond that.”
The sixth graders during the first part of the year designed and programmed those three robots with a purpose – Operation Hansen’s Java.
The mission was simple – build a robot that could deliver coffee to Elementary School Principal Robert Hansen.
“It’s truly amazing to watch these students build and apply what they are learning,” Hansen said. “They work together to solve issues and problems and, in the end, walk away with practical knowledge they can use in school and later in life. They also have a pretty cool project to look back on and know what they accomplished because of all their hard work.”
In the end, the students were successful, though they ended up delivering him some Keurig K-Cups, just to avoid any potential spillage.
That project is just the tip of what these kids work on.
During the course of their time in the class, students will be part of groups that have four key components – a project manager, an information specialist, a software specialist and an engineer. Each position has certain responsibilities and if there are fewer than four students in a group, some have to take on more than one role.
“It can be pretty challenging at times, but it can be exciting and fun,” said Jillian Robinson, a sixth grader. “It helps you with learning and with social skills. It helps you for later in life.”
An example of one of the roles is the information specialist, who is in charge of logging daily activity and conducts communications with other teams. So, if one team is having issues, they don’t go to Vaughan for the answers. Instead, the communication specialist talks to other teams to try and solve the issue. If three or more teams have issues, Vaughan then steps in to work on that issue to make sure students understand that particular part of the project.
“That puts the learning responsibility on them,” Vaughan said. “They become independent learners.”
By doing that, Vaughan said that helps lead her to the best part of teaching the Robotics classes.
“It’s when I get to observe the light go on and when they realize they can learn and they want to learn,” she said. “That’s the part I like best.”
This all doesn’t stop in the sixth grade, either. The Robotics program leads into the Gateway program in seventh grade. High School students participate in Project Lead the Way, which provides further STEM studies.
“The Robotics program is a perfect example of how well our teachers adapt to the changing world of education,” Sidney Superintendent Bill Christensen said. “It’s truly inspiring to see what the students have accomplished. I can’t express enough how proud I am of Deb Vaughan and her students for the success of this program, and I look forward to watching it continue to grow. The lessons these students are learning not only will help them in their educational path, but in life as well.”
Below is a video created about Project Hansen's Java:
After all, it’s filled with more than an estimated 1,000,000 Legos.
These Legos aren’t made for playing, however.
Vaughan uses them with her Elementary School Robotics classes. With these Legos, students learn to design, build and program robots to do different things.
In its second year, the program at the Elementary School has gone from fifth and sixth graders to including third and fourth graders. The classes are engaging and hands-on and students have shown they’ll come in during free time to work more extensively on their projects.
It’s not just a version of recess, though. All the while, as they build their robots, they are learning important educational and life lessons. With no individual projects, they learn teamwork, problem solving and many applications of the STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Math) standards.
Vaughan, who has been teaching for 23 years and has been at Sidney since 2004, noted attendance hasn’t been an issue with her classes. Some students who have missed classes in the past have had perfect attendance once they got involved with the Robotics program.
“That’s an indicator of how well the kids buy into the program,” said Vaughan, who also ran two Robotics summer camps. “In this course, it’s friendly because it’s Legos. They work because they want to make the car go faster.
“In math, you learn circumference because you are going to be tested on it,” she continued. “In Robotics, you learn circumference because it might help you win the race. You want to learn it.”
The program runs differently for each grade. For third, fourth and fifth graders, they attend the class every fourth day, so depending on the week a group might have the class once or twice. Sixth graders go every day for a 10-week span. At any given time, there could be more than 100 teams working on building and programming a robot of some kind. The basic premise of the program, though, is students learn engineering and programming aspects of Robotics. Students get to deal with real-life challenges and will often be paired with people they may not have chosen on their own. They also adapt leadership roles and learn to manage time.
“It helps builds your education for people who want to be an engineer,” said Adrienne Paternoster, a sixth grader who noted she has wanted to be an engineer since she was a third grader. “Sometimes when doing the final project, it’s stressful. But then the adrenaline kicks in.”
Each grade is also at a different level.
Third and fourth graders work with items such as gears and drag-and-drop programming. Fifth graders have built cars. All three of these grades use 2-D models to create a 3-D version.
Sixth graders are using new Lego EV3 kits to help them expand on what was learned last year. Those students have worked on projects such as a vehicle equipped with a robotic arm, one equipped with a robotic crane and a vehicle with a trailer.
The best part of these specially designed robots? The students designed them and with software on laptops, they program them as well.
“(Vaughan) takes on new challenges and does a lot of things with students,” said Tom Barrowman, an educational consultant with Lego whose territory includes most of New England as well as the majority of New York. “I thought she was going beyond what she and the students could do. But she challenges students to design and build things on their own. … Most schools build basic models and program. She’s going way beyond that.”The sixth graders during the first part of the year designed and programmed those three robots with a purpose – Operation Hansen’s Java.
The mission was simple – build a robot that could deliver coffee to Elementary School Principal Robert Hansen.
“It’s truly amazing to watch these students build and apply what they are learning,” Hansen said. “They work together to solve issues and problems and, in the end, walk away with practical knowledge they can use in school and later in life. They also have a pretty cool project to look back on and know what they accomplished because of all their hard work.”
In the end, the students were successful, though they ended up delivering him some Keurig K-Cups, just to avoid any potential spillage.
That project is just the tip of what these kids work on.
During the course of their time in the class, students will be part of groups that have four key components – a project manager, an information specialist, a software specialist and an engineer. Each position has certain responsibilities and if there are fewer than four students in a group, some have to take on more than one role.
“It can be pretty challenging at times, but it can be exciting and fun,” said Jillian Robinson, a sixth grader. “It helps you with learning and with social skills. It helps you for later in life.”
An example of one of the roles is the information specialist, who is in charge of logging daily activity and conducts communications with other teams. So, if one team is having issues, they don’t go to Vaughan for the answers. Instead, the communication specialist talks to other teams to try and solve the issue. If three or more teams have issues, Vaughan then steps in to work on that issue to make sure students understand that particular part of the project.
“That puts the learning responsibility on them,” Vaughan said. “They become independent learners.”
By doing that, Vaughan said that helps lead her to the best part of teaching the Robotics classes.
“It’s when I get to observe the light go on and when they realize they can learn and they want to learn,” she said. “That’s the part I like best.”This all doesn’t stop in the sixth grade, either. The Robotics program leads into the Gateway program in seventh grade. High School students participate in Project Lead the Way, which provides further STEM studies.
“The Robotics program is a perfect example of how well our teachers adapt to the changing world of education,” Sidney Superintendent Bill Christensen said. “It’s truly inspiring to see what the students have accomplished. I can’t express enough how proud I am of Deb Vaughan and her students for the success of this program, and I look forward to watching it continue to grow. The lessons these students are learning not only will help them in their educational path, but in life as well.”
Below is a video created about Project Hansen's Java: