{"id":295,"date":"2011-11-28T11:48:15","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T11:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295"},"modified":"2011-12-08T21:22:04","modified_gmt":"2011-12-08T21:22:04","slug":"how-it-all-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295","title":{"rendered":"Elementary Robotics Here – How It All Started"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I came to the Williamsburg Schools eight years ago, there was an established robotics program for sixth graders, which I continued.\u00a0 It was based on the older Lego<\/a> RCX robots, which were problem prone.\u00a0 A grade 1\/2 teacher and I were interested in a robot that would work with younger kids as well as a replacment for the RCX robots.\u00a0 So when the Lego NXT (for middle school) and the WeDo (for elementary school) robots were announced, I bought some kits right away and started using them in different grades.\u00a0 Later, I learned about BeeBots<\/a> at a conference and it hit me that we could now have robotics in every grade level from preschool to grade 6.<\/p>\n

After a year or so of using robots across the grades and figuring out a scope and sequence, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced a technology grant program that originated from the federal stimulus money.\u00a0 So I got together a group of 8 (mostly) local school districts and wrote a 2 year, $200,000 grant to teach forty teachers the Lego WeDo for elementary or Lego Mindstorms NXT for middle school robotics.\u00a0 It went very well and\u00a0 about 1500 students directly benefited in those 2 years.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I thought about my own practice.\u00a0 What would it look like to have students coming out of sixth grade with seven years of robotics experience?\u00a0 What are the developmental stages of engineering knowledge for younger kids?\u00a0 How do elementary schools support (or not) the natural engineering instincts of young kids as builders and explorers and engineers that they possess as preschoolers and kindergarten students?\u00a0 Would our program influence students to be interested in STEM fields?<\/p>\n

So I used all the successes (and missteps) here to design and document a preschool to grade 6 Elementary Engineering Curriculum (available on the kidsengineer.com<\/a> Resources page), which we have implemented here in Williamsburg and are still refining.\u00a0 I also obtained\u00a0 the resources (with help from the Williamsburg Trust Fund) for parents to start First Lego League<\/a> (FLL) Teams after school.\u00a0 We now have 1 FLL and 2 FLL, Jr teams here in our rural town of 2500.\u00a0 Our first and oldest team has moved onto Hampshire Regional Middle School and is competing for the first time this year.\u00a0 A sister school, New Hingham, in Chesterfield-Goshen, is also in the process of implementing a full K to 6 engineering program based on robotics with assistance from Williamsburg and is also starting afterschool robotics clubs. \u00a0 After attending some conferences, I found out that our program was very innovative (even internationally).\u00a0 Currently, I am seeking additional funding and higher education researchers to spread the idea and study the effects of elementary engineering based on robotics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I came to the Williamsburg Schools eight years ago, there was an established robotics program for sixth graders, which I continued.\u00a0 It was based on the older Lego RCX robots, which were problem prone.\u00a0 A grade 1\/2 teacher and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childdevelop","category-robotics","category-teaching","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nElementary Robotics Here - How It All Started - Kids Engineer!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elementary Robotics Here - How It All Started - Kids Engineer!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I came to the Williamsburg Schools eight years ago, there was an established robotics program for sixth graders, which I continued.\u00a0 It was based on the older Lego RCX robots, which were problem prone.\u00a0 A grade 1\/2 teacher and … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kids Engineer!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-28T11:48:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-08T21:22:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"JohnHeffernan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"JohnHeffernan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"JohnHeffernan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/#\/schema\/person\/fd9d549ccd0fb2c6c495705a81039438\"},\"headline\":\"Elementary Robotics Here – How It All Started\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-28T11:48:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-08T21:22:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295\"},\"wordCount\":455,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/#\/schema\/person\/fd9d549ccd0fb2c6c495705a81039438\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Child Development\",\"Robotics\",\"Teaching\",\"Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295\",\"name\":\"Elementary Robotics Here - How It All Started - Kids Engineer!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-28T11:48:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-08T21:22:04+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=295#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Elementary Robotics Here – How It All Started\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/\",\"name\":\"Kids Engineer!\",\"description\":\"To understand and promote engineering education in elementary schools. 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