Building Engineers in K-5 Classrooms- May 4th DTL Showcase Grant

Time-Lapse of May 4th - Main Gym at Pinecrest HS

PHEW!  What a day!  On May 4th, 2018, Moore County Schools was able to convert our 4th annual Elementary Robotics Competition into a statewide showcase event/PD entitled "Building Engineers in K-5 Classrooms".  In addition to our 300 students (and their coaches, admin, and many parents!) we invited 200 educators from across North Carolina to a) see our students in action, and b) learn how to take some of the ideas around engineering/robotics we've been successful with back to their home districts.

Who attended?
We were pleased to welcome educators (teachers, admin, instructional staff), university professors, preservice teachers, and representatives from NCDPI and the Friday Institute.

What did participants do?
Our full agenda (and all resources/materials from the day) is available here:  moorerobotics.com/may4.  While 100 participants observed our students in action, the other 100 received an introduction to the engineering/design process using Keva planks to build an 8-inch bridge.  We then flip flopped the two groups so they could experience the piece of the morning they hadn't yet seen.



In the afternoon, after students left and participants were able to take a full lunch break, we broke into small groups for PD.  In these sessions, participants were able to be introduced to the various types of robotics we had on display for the morning- Lego EV3s, Dash, Drones, and Spheros.  They were able to get their hands directly on the robotics and programming skills that our kids experience throughout our schools.  In the Sphero session, they furthered their understanding of the engineering process through the creation of predators (of which they got to battle with!):

Finally, we wrapped the day up with an enthusiastic promise to remain partners in learning/growing these ideas throughout the state!  

We would like to publicly thank NCDPI for providing us the opportunity to share these ideas with others.  We'd also like to thank all of our hard-working teachers, coaches, admin, and STUDENTS for the wonderful work they have put into this over these past 4 years.  We look forward to continuing to provide these opportunities for our students as well as cementing these new partnerships across the state in order to spread the impact of engineering/design on K-5 students all across North Carolina!

Thanks again,

-MCS Digital Learning Team

P.S. Don't forget to tag your work with #NCRobotics so we can all keep track of each other's progress!

FLL Rookie Experience Reflection and Tips

Four years into our robotics experience in Moore County Schools, Clint Rogers and I decided to take our robotics game to the next level.  We picked one of our schools to go into this new experience with and we both came away learning a lot. We didn’t realize exactly how much time and effort this new commitment would require, but given the opportunity we would participate in First League League every season that it’s offered.

What is FLL?

First Lego League is an international robotics competition for students from grades fourth through eighth, but it is so much more than robots.  This competition is made up of 3 distinctive parts in which students are judged: Project, Robot Game, and Core Values.

During the course of the season, students research a topic, develop a plan, and present their project to an outside party.  This year’s theme was Hydrodynamics - so everything was centered around water.  Students collaborated with field experts and university professors before deciding on a course of action and coming up with the topic they wanted.  Once they decided on their project they had to come up with entertaining ways to present it to judges (song, skit, ect).

The robot game has a challenge board with several challenges and each challenge is worth a set amount of points.  Student have 2 ½ minutes to execute as many of the challenges as possible.  They compete in 3 rounds and they keep the best score out of the 3 rounds.   Students are also judged on how well they have modified their EV3 robot in order to perform the tasks in the robot design category.

Core Values is portion of the competition where teams show they can work together and value each other’s input.  During this event, students are given a task or a challenge that they must work together to solve and they are judged on how they teamwork.  **Below you can see we played reverse musical chairs as a practice exercise - students had to try to work together to get ALL team members on fewer and fewer chairs each round.  

Teams aren't just judged at an FLL competition in the four judging spaces, they are watched throughout the competition day by judges to see if they are showing gracious professionalism, sharing what they have learned with other teams, and displaying an understanding that learning is more important than winning. Below you’ll find a picture of the pit where teams are staged in between events. Bring snacks! There is plenty of downtime.

How is it different than what Moore County is doing with robotics?

At the elementary level we have a county and regional competition.  This competition consists of four, twenty minute  rounds of programming and EV3 robot to navigate a board/path for points using various sensors.  The challenge is that students have not seen these boards before.  

How do I get started with FLL?

First you need a team of no more than 10 students and you need to register your team nationally.  You can do that here. This comes with an annual team registration fee of $225. The field kit (which is different each year to coincide with the theme) costs $75 plus shipping. Then you will need to build a board so your team can practice - instructions here. This summer you will need to order your lego pieces for practice - they did not release this year until August 29.  Then in mid October, register for a qualifying tournament- cost is $75.

Rookie Tips and things we learned this year:

• Programming with cables on a computer is most dependable. It is do-able on a chromebook but the software is much more robust on a computer.  
• Having a reliable parent volunteer is a MUST and a requirement to compete
• Each team member needs to be knowledgeable about the robot and program as well as the project - you never know which team member will get asked questions.
• Collaboration with other coaches that have FLL experience proved to be very valuable.

Neither of our teams walked away this season with any awards but “What we discover is more important than what we win” (this being one of the eight core values that your team should remember). If you are considering diving into FLL next season and have questions, please reach out to us and we will be happy to help you!

Kelly Priest  - kpriest@ncmcs.org  

Clint Rogers - crogers@ncmcs.org

Three Schools, One Team: Northern Moore Middle FTC Team

If you’ve been keeping up with the Moore County EV3 Robotics Competitions for the past few years then you’d know that the Northern Moore Area middle schools are a force to be reckoned with.  In fact, Westmoore Elementary has won first place in the middle school competition for the past two years.  With the increase in student success in our local competitions and the continuous development of their computer programming skills, six of our Northern Moore Area middle school students will be taking their talents to the next level in robotics, First Tech Challenge (FTC).

For this post, guest bloggers and Robo Colts team members Lindy Wiseman (Westmoore), Annievette Camcho (Elise), and River Seawell (Highfalls) share their FTC journey so far. 

Team #13780 Robo Colts is a rookie FTC Team consisting of students in 6th, 7th and 8th grade.  Our team is a combined team of three students from Elise, two students from Highfalls K-8, and one student from Westmoore K-8, all located in the Northern Moore area of Moore County Schools.  All club members have at least two years of experience with Lego EV3 Robotics and have competed in the Moore County Schools robotic competitions.  

In FTC,  we work as a team to build and make modifications to the programming and structure of the robot.   The most challenging thing about FTC is coming up with new ideas to fix problems.  Since we come from three different schools, transportation to the meetings has also been challenging.  Luckily, our team members from Westmoore and Highfalls were able to ride the bus to Elise with the athletic teams, but if there was no sports practice, then we wouldn’t have transportation, and that was very frustrating.     

Our first practice was on October 17th.  We practiced once a week and sometimes twice a week if we had transportation.  We competed in Moore County School’s Winter Warriors competition on December 15th.  With only a couple of month’s to build a robot, learn how to program it, and learn how to drive it, we felt nervous and unsure of how we would do in the competition.

On the day of the competition, we did not feel confident because we were competing against people who have been in FTC for a couple of years and had more experience than us. During the interview, we were nervous about speaking in front of the judges, but we were confident in our engineering notebook and our robot design.

When we started the competition we felt discouraged because our controller broke and our robot started acting up.  Luckily, we were able to borrow a controller from another team.  When we had our first round, we started feeling more confident because we were able to successfully stack multiple glyphs. As the rounds went on we felt even more confident because we continued to do well, and we were even the first team to successfully accomplish autonomous mode, which is where the robot drives itself according to code written by our team programmers Lindy and Alex.  From this competition we learned that it takes a lot of teamwork to be successful.

A big part of FTC is gracious professionalism.  Gracious professionalism is a way of doing things that value others, respects individuals as well as the community, it also communicates and encourages high-quality work. At Winter Warriors we demonstrated gracious professionalism by helping another team find the parts they needed when their robot malfunctioned. We learned from other teams that we need to have a diverse skill set within our own team. An example of this would be that our programmers could also drive the robot, and the drivers would be able to program. As a young team, we enjoyed competing with older students that we could learn from.

The competition was very close, and we were excited to be one of the two teams competing in the championship round! The final round was very close, and our team and our alliance, Union Pines High School were one point away from first place! When the winners were announced, we were were very surprised to be named the winners of the Think Award, the award for best interview, engineering notebook, and overall gracious professionalism!

On Saturday, January 27th we will compete in the NC FTC Qualifier in Durham.  We are most looking forward to getting to meet other teams and see their techniques with their robot.  This may be our first year of FTC but we are confident in ourselves as well as our team. No matter what happens at the competition we will always be there to support our team as well as others.

We have enjoyed participating in FTC this year, and we are thankful for receiving the FTC Rookie Grant that provided the funding for our robot. Being on this team has allowed us to build friendships with our teammates from other schools, as well as learn more about the importance of working together.  We are thankful for this opportunity and cannot wait to get to work for next year!

-Lindy, Annie, River

The Robo Colts members with the Think Award: River Seawell, Alex Simpson (Elise), Lindy Wiseman, Neil Seawell (Highfalls), Caleb Sexton (Elise), Annievette Camcho.

The Northern Moore Middle Robo Colts are coached by DIFs Will Allred and Carrie Robledo.  For more information about FTC, check out their website: https://www.ncfllandftc.com/what-is-firstreg-tech-challenge.html

Make sure to follow me on Twitter (@carrierobledo) for updates on Saturday’s competition!

-Carrie

STEM Community Leaders in MCS

If you've been following this blog or our Twitter feed (@MCSDigital), you've undoubtedly noticed a heavy emphasis on STEM learning in MCS.  From K-12 robotics to Cyber Patriot to science kits to STEM Camp to engineering lessons and everything in between- STEM concepts have swept through the district at a blistering pace, supported by our DIF team and our teachers.

Another major support system for this revolution in our schools is a group most folks likely have no idea even exist- our STEM Community Leaders group- a group that has been meeting to help promote and sustain STEM learning in Moore County Schools for more than 5 years!

This is a dynamic group of important stakeholders in our county- including local and regional business leaders, community organization leaders, parents, School Board members, Foundation members, as well as MCS curriculum and senior staff.  Here is a list of the groups and businesses whose members/representatives have been involved:

The Public Education Foundation of Moore County
Moore County Partners in Progress
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Duke Energy
The Palmer Foundation
Mebane Foundation
Kiwanis Club of the Sandhills
Sandhills Rotary Club
NC Realtors Association
Smithsonian Science Education Center
NC Inquiry Collaborative Network (NCICN)
North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center
Moore County Airport
First Tee of the Sandhills
Woodmen of the Wild
The Pilot
C.A.L.L. (Community Assisting Language Learners)

What impact does this group have on Moore County Schools students and teachers?
The impact this group has had has been deep and far-reaching.  They are a source of advisory ideas as well as financial backing.  3 years ago, a large STEM grant from the Mebane Foundation was expiring.  This grant planted many of the seeds of STEM within Moore County Schools and when it ended we were faced with a problem- how to sustain and grow these vital STEM initiatives after the grant funds had expired.

In order to solve this problem, the Public Education Foundation (PEF) offered the opportunity to create a separate "STEM Bucket" for grants and donations to flow into in order to sustain our growth.  The members of the STEM Community Leaders then worked hard to obtain grants and donations in order to build a "bridge to sustainability" for all of our STEM programs in the district. 



The results of this work were extremely impressive.  This group was able to raise over $75,000 over the course of the 2015-2016 school year in order to sustain our programs and allow us to build a self-sustaining funding model (our STEM Camp tuition goes directly to support all of these programs in MCS).  In addition, generous grants and donations continue to be facilitated by this group in order to add "fuel to the fire" as well as cover student scholarships to STEM Camp for those families who are unable to pay.  Keep in mind, this is all in addition to the targeted grants that the Public Ed Foundation have utilized to spark interest in STEM across the district.

In short, we could not be the leaders in STEM that we are in Moore County without this dedicated group who many people may not know about (and therefore be able to recognize and thank!).   If you are ever in contact with members of any of the above organizations, please tell them thank you for their support of engaged student learning in MCS!!!

Join the MCS Robotics Wave at our Regional Competition

    The robotics initiative in Moore County has exploded and developed into something truly fantastic for students. In just four years, we have grown to having a robotics team in every single school in Moore County; yes, every...single...school! Every year our county holds two robotics competitions, one for elementary and one for middle school. Schools from around the county come to participate and it is a great day of learning, engineering, and fun! 

Last year was our first attempt at holding a regional competition and inviting other school districts to participate. Schools from Scotland County were in attendance and it proved to be an exciting competition among the students. Due to the fact that we had a significant amount of interest last year, we are hoping other districts will join in on the robotics adventure this year. 

    Every year, MCS has a theme that surrounds the robotics competitions and all events are based off of it. This year the theme will be, "Oh, the Places You'll Lego", and elementary students will design robotics boards based off of a book and middle school will compete in book inspired events. We are very excited about this years' theme and tying literacy into the mix. On October 20, at the regional technology meeting in Raeford, we will be sharing information about our upcoming competitions and inviting all districts to attend. We would love to see all new and familiar faces this year!! Come join the fun and be a part of something great!

Check our website for updates and information: https://www.moorerobotics.net/

Regional Elementary Robotics Competition          

May 5, 2018 from 8am-12pm

Pinecrest High School Gymnasium

250 Voit Gilmore Lane

Southern Pines, NC 28387

Regional Middle School Robotics Competition

May 19, 2018 from 8am-12pm

Pinecrest High School Gymnasium

250 Voit Gilmore Lane

Southern Pines, NC 28387

STEM Camp 2017- Best STEM Camp Ever (until next year)!

Today, the Moore County Digital team is wrapping up our 5th annual summer STEM Camp and it's safe to say this has been the biggest and best one yet!

For those that don't know, our summer STEM Camp is offered as a 4-day camp for two consecutive weeks (it runs as two stand-alone weeks with a different group of kids each week).  During STEM Camp, our students are exposed to cutting edge technology, amazing guest speakers, loads of great STEM career options, and are able to think and act like real engineers.  It is open to rising 3rd-8th graders and this year we also opened an Advanced Robotics camp that included students in grades 9 and 10.  Tuition is $160 for the week, which includes all lunches, snacks, and a free t-shirt.

Simply put- this is the best camp in North Carolina, PERIOD!  Our DIF team works tirelessly to provide the best possible experience for the 200+ students that attend.

Check out all the pictures and videos from STEM Camp this year!

Each year, our camp has a theme.  This year, our theme was aviation.  We worked in partnership with the Moore County Airport to provide a top-notch experience and exposure to real people who have been successful in the aviation career pathway.  Each of 4 rooms in the camp worked on different aviation related tasks and challenges.  Here are the things our students got to experience this year:

Room One:  Rockets and Thrust Structures

Mr. Rogers, Mrs. Priest, and Ms. Boesch worked with students through the engineering process, where they were given the task to produce a thrust structure from cardboard, Popsicle sticks, and hot glue.  The structure had to be strong enough to not break apart through 3 consecutive launches into "lower orbit" (ie, launch the water bottle to the top of the metal rod without flying off).  Students had to do a ton of critical thinking in this room- deciding on their design, managing their materials budget to make their structures strong but cheap, figuring out how much water the rocket should hold, how much sand the launch mechanism should hold, and how high their launch mechanism should be held to produce the correct amount of lift.

At the end of the week, students created presentations to try and convince NASA to purchase their thrust structures.  A lot of fun mess was had by all!

Room Two:  3D Printed Wing Designs
Ms. Alderson and Mr. Martin worked with students to design wings to test for lift.  Students learned how to use Tinkercad, an accessible 3D design program we use often with students.  After completing their designs, we had three 3D printers churning their designs out all week.  Once their designs were printed, it was time for testing!

Ms. Alderson's father-in-law built a custom wind tunnel for all of our student testing.  Students placed their design into the wind tunnel and turned the wind on high.  Students had to intently observe how their design fared and whether or not it achieved lift.  After discussions about design, shape, and thinking about why some achieved lift and others didn't, it was back to Tinkercad to work on improving their designs in hopes of achieving lift (or better / more stable lift) with the new and improved versions.  Students did an excellent job with this engineering process and learned a lot!

Room Three:  Mars Rovers and App Creation
Ms. Reynolds and Ms. Snotherly created an awesome experience for students in the Mars Rover room!  The elementary students were tasked with creating a livable habitat on Mars out of a boatload of craft materials (cardboard, tape, ribbon, paint, confetti, etc.).  The other task they needed to complete was the creation of a Mars Rover out of our Lego WeDo kits.  This rover was built to navigate the landscape successfully.

Our middle school campers worked with Ms. Reynolds to create apps using the MIT AppInventor program. Students were totally engaged in creating their Mars-related apps and testing them out on Android tablets that were provided.  We definitely sparked some future programmers this week in this room!

Room Four:  Drone Obstacle Course
Ms. Collazo and Ms. Robledo led our Parrot Drone room and it was a huge hit!  After being introduced to the many careers that are popping up around the world that involve drones, students were tasked in teams to collaborate and design an obstacle course object for their drones to fly through.  But here was the catch- they only had $100 to spend at the "Drone Depot", where they could purchase items such as PVC pipe in 2-ft and 4-ft lengths, PVC pipe connectors, and various lengths of rope.

After creating their obstacle, students headed off to the gym to learn how to program drones to fly in a set, autonomous way as well as how to manually fly their drones.  Finally, on the last day each team got to attempt to manually fly their drones through multiple obstacle courses they had built and carried to the gym.  Students loved the experience and learned a ton!

Advanced Robotics Room
A brand new addition to STEM Camp this year, the Advanced Robotics room worked with 9 rising 8th-10th graders to get their hands on designing, building, and programming advanced robotics to complete challenging tasks.  Led by Mr. Herring and Ms. Holmes, students were given an intense crash course on how to be successful builders and programmers.  The growth our students made in this week was incredible and we look to expand this offering next year!






Guest Speakers
We were also proud to offer our campers some exposure to some amazing guest speakers throughout the course of camp.  Lt. Col Ana-Maria Ehrler spoke about her experience as a combat pilot.  Lt. Tim Davis and Detective Shane Fogle from the Moore County Sheriff's department brought and demonstrated a drone they use in their police work and described how it helps keep them and the public safer.  Paul Von Hardenberg, a former mechanical engineer with Sikorsky Aircraft, spoke to students about the engineering process as well as how helicopters achieve lift.  All of our guest speakers made our camp a richer, more authentic experience for kids.





Finally, we had some great surprises in store for our students this year that could not have happened without our partnership with the Moore County Airport.  On the Monday of each camp, we invited Greg Hudson, the CEO, to land his helicopter on the front lawn of New Century Middle School.  Needless to say, the kids were totally caught by surprise when helicopter came in and really enjoyed learning about it from Mr. Hudson after he landed.

And, last but CERTAINLY not least, the airport allowed all of the kids to come and take a tour and talk to real pilots, flight controllers, and aviation mechanics.  Our students got to get up close and personal with many types of aircraft and learn from the experts what it takes to be successful in their field.  And the cherry on top came at the end of camp- our students were given the opportunity to go up for a free flight with the Airport's Young Eagles program.  Unfortunately, our first week of campers were rained out but received a rain check for the fall.  But, in the 2nd week the skies stayed clear and calm as over 80 students went up in the air, many of which for the very first time!  Truly a thrilling end to a great STEM Camp!

Finally, we would like to thank the entire DIF team for their extremely hard work in providing the best summer camp in North Carolina.  We'd also like to thank the Airport Authority for partnering with us to provide opportunities for students they will never forget.  We'd like to thank all of our guest speakers for sharing their knowledge of their fields.  And, finally, thanks to all the Moore County Schools' support from top to bottom, thanks to New Century for hosting, and thanks to the parents for trusting us with your kids this year.  We truly enjoyed it!

School Year in Review: 2016-17 Edition

As the school year winds down and summer plans begin to take form, I want to take a few minutes and reflect on some of the great things that have happened this year.

Engineering Thread

• Before students returned in August, teachers were beginning to prep for the upcoming year.  Teacher leaders in Moore County met with Curriculum Specialists to develop our Engineering Thread in K-5 classrooms.

CyberPatriot

• Early in the school year, our high school CyberPatriot Teams began the qualifying rounds for the State and National rounds of the competition that puts students in the place of newly hired IT professionals managing the network of small local businesses.  One Union Pines CyberPatriot team received a State award for advancing to the 3rd Round.  

Winter Warriors

• Before Christmas break, our middle and high school FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics teams competed in a local warm-up called Winter Warriors.  This event was hosted by Union Pines High School and was a great measuring stick for future FTC events.  Robotics teams were able to practice their robots and programming on the actual Velocity Vortex playing field they would eventually see at Trinity High School in Durham, NC in January.  

NCCAT

• In January, the DIF team traveled east to Ocracoke for a Team Planning Session at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.  While we were there we planned out our Spring activities (digital learning showcase, NCTIES presentations, elementary and middle school robotics events, STEM Camp).  

FTC Robotics

• On January 28th, Moore County Schools took 7 FTC Teams to Trinity High School of Durham and Chapel Hill to compete at a Regional Qualifier event.  Our teams were pitted against 15 other teams from around the state in an attempt to qualify for the State level Robotics Competition.  

NCTIES

• In March, the North Carolina Technology In Education Society (NCTIES) had its annual conference in Raleigh at the Convention Center.  This is always a great learning experience as we get to meet with colleagues to share ideas about how to effectively use technology and digital tools in the classroom.  It is worth noting this year that 8 DIF's presented at NCTIES on topics like Coding in Middle School Math, Sustainable STEM Camps, our Elementary Engineering Thread and using the app SeeSaw in Elementary Schools to create portfolios.  

Digital Learning Showcase

• In March, our students and teachers had an opportunity to show the community the great things they are doing in their classrooms with digital tools.  We had our 3rd annual Digital Learning Showcase at West Pine Elementary.  Teachers, students, parents and community members were invited to check out things like 3D printed fidget tools, custom built cell phone applications, programmed drones, play-dough pianos and robotic Lego arms.  

Elementary Robotics Showcase

• A few weeks ago, May 12th, we held our 3rd Elementary Robotics Showcase at Pinecrest High School.  The event has grown tremendously since our fist elementary robotics event held at Sandhills Farmlife in 2015.  Students had to navigate terrains that depicted different cities around the United States but programming for different turns and objectives throughout the unknown landscapes.  We also opened up our Elementary Robotics Showcase to other districts in our Region with Scotland County sending several teams the following day on Saturday.  

Middle School Robotics Competition

• The following Friday, May 19th, we had our 2nd Middle School Robotics Competition.  This year's competition provided opportunities for students to program robots to throw a football, pull a weighted sled, measure area of a building and traverse terrain with various obstacles.  The middle school event was opened up to other schools in our region the following day as Scotland County schools brought 5 teams to the Saturday event.  

STEM Camp and Advanced Robotics Camp

• STEM Camp will be our next big thing in the district.  This year's STEM Camp will be held at New Century Middle School.  There are two, 1-week camps (June 19-22 and June 26-29).  This year we are partnering with the Moore County Airport to have an Aviation Theme culminating with the opportunity for campers to fly for free at the conclusion of camp on each Thursday.  STEM Camp filled up at a record pace this year with over 280 applicants in the first week.  
• This year is a first for our Advanced Robotics Camp (ARC).  This camp will run during the first week simultaneously with our June 19-22 STEM Camp and will focus on preparing students for the FTC Robotics use in secondary schools.  The ARC is open to rising 8-10 grade students and still has a few open spots.  If you are interested in attending the Advanced Robotics camp please email me at jcallahan@ncmcs.org. 

As we wind down (or wind up) for summer, it should not go unnoticed that our schools are in a dire financial situation.  With the cuts that have been proposed, these events listed above will certainly be affected in some fashion.  The support staff that makes things like this possible are vital in sustaining them.  I feel like the people that will read this article already know about the great things teachers and students are doing in the district.  My hope is that this article reaches those that do not know about all of the great things Moore County Schools students are achieving.  My hope is that at least one person reads this article and thinks "We have to fully fund our schools".  My hope is that people realize that Moore County children are our greatest investment.  So I ask of you, share this article with others so the hard work our teachers, students and support staff get the notoriety they deserve.  Share this article so we can let the community know what our students are capable of when they are funded.  Share this article to be part of the solution.  

Tyler Callahan

Digital Integration Facilitator

@STEM_TC

jcallahan@ncmcs.org

A salute to our Public Education Foundation

It takes a village. That’s one of the cliches that you hear a lot in the education field. But it rings true. A student's success in school is directly correlated to the hard work and dedication of a number of people.

One of the most supportive groups that we have in Moore County Schools who has an enormous hand in the education of our students is the Public Education Foundation (PEF). Led by President Andrew Lyons, this passionate group of up to 25 members has awarded over $250,000 to enrich classrooms in Moore County Schools for over 30 years. From robots and drones to musical instruments and sustainable school gardens, our PEF has funded a variety of educational projects. Whenever we see something pricey that we would like to integrate into the classroom but we’re unable to secure the funding, the first thing we think of is applying for a grant from the Public Education Foundation and so should every educator in Moore County Schools.

I highly recommend pursuing a grant through the PEF if you are interested in adding something to your classroom to facilitate creative and engaging learning experiences. Anyone from our Digital Integration Facilitator team would be more than happy to help teachers with the application process or preparing for their interview. And the turnaround time is amazing! If your project is approved, you will have your funding within the next two weeks! Click here to apply for funding.

Along with projects that are embedded in our daily curriculum, the PEF has played a vital role in two major events in Moore County Schools. First is our annual summer STEM Camp. Their financial assistance has helped bridge the gap to a sustainable camp for our rising third through eighth grade students. They were also generous enough to provide scholarships last year for students to attend STEM camp who may not have been able to attend otherwise. And secondly our elementary robotics showcase as well as our middle and high school robotics competition would not be possible without the support of the PEF. Many of the robots our students program as well as the fields they use during the competitions have been awarded from grants through the PEF.

Please come out and support our Public Education Foundation! The “Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?” event is sponsored by the PEF. Admission is free and the excitement is unbelievable. I hope to see you at the Pinecrest Auditorium on Thursday, January 19th at 6:30 pm. Come early to see some robotic demonstrations that were made possible by funding through the PEF. Another wonderful opportunity to support our PEF is the ShamRock ‘N Roll Road Race on Saturday, March 11th. They offer a 1 Mile Fun Run, 5k run/walk and a 10k run/walk. All proceeds go towards the PEF. There is also a competition that the PEF funds to encourage the support of our local schools. The top 3 schools with the highest percentage of participation earn a cash prize! Click here to register.

We would like to send a HUGE thank you to everyone in the Public Education Foundation for their continued support of our students. We truly appreciate all of the opportunities that you have made possible for so many children.

-Clint Rogers

Ready, Set, Robotics!

   Elementary students from around the county are excited to join this year's robotics clubs. Many schools have either started clubs or are in the final selection process. Robotics has become a booming activity in Moore County over the last three years. We are now in our third year of our elementary showcase, second a year of our middle and high school competitions, and first year of holding regional competitions. "It has been amazing to watch the growth and excitement of robotics over the past couple years", Mrs. Steingraber, a Sandhills Farm Life (SFL) 3rd grade teacher reports.

  At Sandhills Farm Life, the robotics program is well under way and the students couldn't be more excited. "We had to fill out applications, use our best handwriting, and really explain why we wanted to be in the club", says Aiden, a robotics club member.  According to Mrs. Elliott, another robotics coach at SFL, "there has been so much interest in robotics, we are doing two showcases! One showcase will take place at the school and the other will be for the county."

   The theme for this year's Moore County Elementary Showcase will be "American Cities". Students will be designing boards centered around an American city theme and will create challenges for robots to solve. The middle school competition will also be centered around the same theme; however, instead of creating boards, students will come prepared with advanced pre-written programs. We are eager to see how this year's showcase and competition unfolds, and more information will be coming soon about our regional showcase/competition. 

   Robotics has been an exciting way to interest students in the careers associated with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). As a county, we are now holding two STEM camps during the summer due to increased interest. The week long camps are filled with inventions, robotics, 3D printing, and entrepreneurs from our community. STEM careers and learning is the wave of the future and Moore County students want to be a part of it!

~Deanna Boesch

DASH as an Ambassador -Student Feature: Jacob Pyska

Jacob is a fourth grade student in Elaina Aponte’s self-contained classroom at West Pine Elementary.  Jacob is first and foremost a lover of robotics and technology.  Jacob has autism and because of this is very shy and has a hard time in social settings, including school.  That is until recently.  Jacob’s mother, Jeannie, had a goal she set for her son: to be able to walk into school independently without her walking beside him. At the beginning of the year mom would circle the parking lot a few times, giving her son a pep talk and would ultimately end up walking him in.  Mrs. Aponte and I put our heads together and thought we could use Dash as a way to entice Jacob to come into the building on his own.  Dash would greet Jacob at the door and Mrs. Aponte would let him take on the role of the ‘programmer’ and he would code him to get back to class.  Within about a month, Jacob now comes in school and doesn’t want his mother’s help at all. He tells his mother in the parking lot “I can do this!” When Dash is working in other classes on STEM infused lessons, Jacob walks to the classes he is in to check on him.

According to Mrs. Aponte, “Dash was able to give Jacob confidence and independence.  Jacob is proud of himself and that makes me happy.”

“Jacob has been a student here for three years and has grown leaps and bounds.  This robot has given him purpose and something to be excited about each day.”- Lisa Epling, Assistant Principal

Dash is programmable robot that is great for students as young as kindergarten to learn the basics of coding and programming. It is really exciting how much this little robot has helped this student in such a huge way! Recently, the Public Ed Foundation of Moore County awarded a grant to myself and Clint Rogers and we were able to purchase 14 Dash robots and iPads so that he may have an impact on learning in classrooms all over Moore County.  

Robots in the Elementary Math Classroom!

As we all know, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) has fast become the focus of national and local attention. Skills in these areas are going to be necessary for citizens in our technologically-advancing global society to be successful and productive. Many times however, when we include robotics in our STEM conversations, we think about the wonderful work being done in science. Robots are used to aid in surgeries, create realistic prostheses, find distant galaxies, and even mimic animal behaviors for scientists to learn more about the creatures of our planet.

Mr. Powlen, a 5th grade science and math teacher at Southern Pines Elementary, has found a different way to leverage the power of robots - in his math class! Mr. Powlen recently had his 5th graders use LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robots to master concepts related to decimal place value, while at the same time working through the Engineering and Design Process.

SPES 5th graders testing wheel rotation.

At first, students had to measure the distance of one rotation of their robot’s wheels. They then used their math skills and the engineering process to plan out how to program their robot to travel given distances. Trial, error, and redesign ensued! This led to learning about pivot turns of varying degrees, and finally the challenge of putting all of this knowledge together to conquer a large maze.

Engineering trials...

As educators we can learn so much from each other’s experiences. Mr. Powlen was kind enough to share his thoughts following his math unit integrating the EV3 robots:

Q: What curriculum standards were you hoping to cover with the robotics integration?  

A: Students were having some difficulty in concretely seeing how place value affected the worth of a number and decimals can be a tough concept to get sometimes.  My primary focus with this project was to improve adding and subtracting decimals (5.NBT.7), but we also utilized concepts from powers of ten, rounding, and number comparisons when deciding how to alter the basic program.  While I felt this went pretty well, I think I’ll start it a little later and I’ll definitely be tweaking the homework a bit.  The homework/classroom work revolved in showing the work done during the programming work.

Mr. Powlen's kids testing out their measurements.

Q: How did the project meet/exceed your expectations and in what way(s)?  

A. I was really excited to see how the students enjoyed the project, but students really seemed to process adding and subtracting decimals with greater efficiency.  Also, the level of conversation about how one tenth or one whole made a big difference on how the robot moved was great.  This real world, hands on work seemed to pull in their interest (I was asked daily if we were using robots!) and do more authentic teaching than I could in any given lesson.

Re-programming the decimal commands.

Q. What value do you feel the engineering and design process had in what your kids did during the lessons?  

A. Our lessons lead to making the robot move independently.  The engineering process was in full effect when they went to complete the simple maze I had laid out for them.  Most measured, discussed, and planned what to program.  Some programmed and tested, then discussed what to do next.  There was a lot of testing and improving that occurred!  One of the stipulations I put in was that they only could use the actually maze so much before it would start going against their score, so some went to extremes (i.e. – One group has a student walk the maze while watching their robot run off to the side to mirror its movements!) but most groups were fairly successful.  The fact that they weren’t perfect on the first try was also important.  While I had taught them exacting distances and turns, I wanted them to use this as a beginning point, not the answer, and it worked out so well!

If you need help designing ways to integrate robotics into the subject(s) you teach, don’t hesitate to contact your DIF! He or she would be glad to brainstorm, help plan, and assist you in the classroom in whatever ways will be most helpful.

Keep Calm and Engineer On! -- Kim