Sixth Grade STEM....Robotics

When 4th and 5th grade students attended the symphony with Mrs. Majors the 6th grade students stayed back at Hope School.  They worked on programming little robots with Mrs. Spencer.  Last summer Mrs. Spencer attended a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workshop, where she learned about "Sphero" robots.  This training included ONE free robot for classroom use.  BUT, you know teachers they spend their own money on cool stuff... so, she bought two more. 

The sixth graders had to sketch a track design (angles, parallel and perpendicular lines), build it to scale (math skill: ratios) and then program (code) the robot to navigate the track.   The final test was when the "Sphero" robots actually navigated the track as designed and programmed by each student.   Once the design phase changed to the building phase, some students assisted others with reducing their ratios in order to decrease the size and use less building materials.  This project forced students to use a wide variety of skills to get from design to a successful track run. 

The bonus?  It was SO MUCH FUN!