Project Summary

A consortium of K12 School Systems led by a Community College, all located in rural central Alabama, is submitting a strategy proposal for consideration by the National Science Foundation for their Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) grant initiative. The goal of this strategies project is to provide resources needed to establish in- class robot activities and after school robot competitions for each school system in order to increase over STEM awareness.

The target groups will students ranging from third (3rd) through twelfth (12th) grade.

The grant will provide personnel and resources to establish robot activities and competitions for all participating k12 systems within the service area for the Alexander City campus of Central Alabama Community College (CACC) for all three years of the project. In the second year three more regions will be added, a university &a liberal arts college partners, and another community college. Funds for personnel, robot activities and equipment for one school system in each of these regions for the second year, and two school systems in each of these regions for the third year will be provided. In the third year three more regions of the same components will be added, and funds for personnel and robot activities and equipment for one school system in each of these regions will also be provided. The fully operational program in Region 1 is to provide a “proof of concept example”, and data to be studied by all those involved to further improve this project. The gradual introduction of new regions into the project is to insure a solid, quality program in each region.

Intellectual Merit:

Borrowing from the examples of the federally funded HeadStart program, interest in science must be fostered at an early age using hands-on interventions and laboratory experiences in order to grow and develop through high school. The work with robots is grounded in the belief that students learn best when they are engaged in active exploration, interpretation, and construction of ideas. The set of in-class activities for the WeDo and Mindstorm robots provided are designed to create this kind of involvement and will act as a basis upon which individual teachers can build more materials that can be studied, evaluated, improved, and ultimately shared with the education knowledge base. The after-school competitions offer opportunities to practice the 4C’s, (critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration) that are needed to foster the STEM workforce for the 21st century.

Broader Impact:

Within our rural service area, many school systems share numerous sad traits: the correlation between student’s scores on reading and math for level 4 and the number of students qualify for free/reduced lunch frightening. Coupled with a high school dropout rate exceeding 50%, the future of the STEM Workforce in Alabama is bleak. As has been noted by research, third graders share an equal interest in math and science. It is between grades 5 and 7 that female and minority students begin to lose interest. The continuous nature of our activities and competitions from grades 3-12 is intended to help retain interest in math and science within the student population. As students progress into the more advanced in-class activities and robot competitions in grades 9-12, they are strongly encouraged to engage in cooperative efforts with local industries.