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!

Soaring to New Heights!

From the military, to farming, movie sets, and even the Super Bowl halftime performance, drones are on the rise, and the sky’s the limit for teaching STEM skills with these unmanned aerial vehicles.  This year, thanks to Randolph Electric’s Bright Ideas Grant, students from Westmoore Elementary and Highfalls Elementary have had the opportunity to program, fly, and most importantly, learn, with Parrot “Airborne” drones.

Up and Away in Math!

Ratios and Proportions took on new meaning for sixth graders at Westmoore Elementary.  Working in small groups, students worked through four different stations, measuring the distance from point A to point B at each stop.  After finding the distance, students flew their drones from point A to point B, and used a stopwatch to find the time that their drone made it to point B.  Using their distance and time calculations, students were able to determine the speed of their drone.  Now when students think about ratio and proportions, and the formula for finding speed, they can reflect on this hands-on learning experience!

Flight School

Students from Mrs. Pfiefer’s 4th-grade class at Highfalls met once a week for a month to participate in “Flight School”.  In Flight School, these students learned about current and future uses for drones, discussed drone safety, learned how to code using the Tynker curriculum, and then finally they were able to program and fly their drones!

Carson Phillips showing students how to program the drone to fly.

Carson Phillips, a fourth grader in Mrs. Pfiefer’s class, demonstrated his drone programming skills at the 2017 MCS Elementary Digital Learning Showcase and at Highfalls Elementary’s Family STEM Night.  He describes his experience with flying drones, “At first, I thought the drones were going to be hard to program, but after working with the Tynker app and the website, it wasn’t so hard.   I really like the cool tricks you can do with the drones, like programming it to flip forward or backward.  At the Showcase, I was able to teach other students how to program the drones using the app, that was really cool and really easy!  And at the Family STEM Night, I was able to write the code to fly my drone through a basketball goal!”

So what does this fourth grader hope to do next with drones?  Carson explains, “I think it would be cool if there could be a drone competition like we have the robotics competition.  We could have courses set up like we do for the EV3 robots and we could program our drones to fly around the courses!”

Carson just might be onto something with his idea for a drone competition!  This summer, students participating in MCS STEM Camp will be using their engineering skills to build drone obstacle courses to fly their drones through!

As you can see, flying drones impacts student engagement, communication, collaboration, and other important classroom components. Students are engaged, motivated, and inspired to learn in ways that no other technology will allow.

To see more pictures and videos of drones in action, follow me on Twitter @carrierobledo

-Carrie

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

Computer Science Education Week

This is my first year getting my feet wet with coding, but after I realized that I wouldn't drown in all of the computer science programming mumbo jumbo, I dove in head first! I'll admit, I was a little intimated when I first clicked on http://code.org/learn to try my hand at what over 61,000,000 people had done, learn the basics of coding. I've been a part of meetings with our technology department and looked over the shoulder of one of the lead technicians while he went into the "guts" of some of the programs we use in our county. It wasn't pretty. It was foreign language. So to say I was hesitant to try my hand at coding would be putting it lightly. Then I watched this video from our President and I was inspired to give it a shot. Take a look.

That's when I hoped over to http://code.org/learn to start coding. I was amazed at how well the instruction for coding was organized. You start simple with drag-and-drop coding with blocks to create snowflake designs with Anna and Elsa of Frozen. They even have cameos from Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. If you really want to challenge yourself, you can even create your own app or game with tutorials to help guide you along. 

By the end of the night (more than just one hour) and with the help of http://code.org/learn's training wheels, I was caught up in the excitement of creating my own code! I was wrapped up in the ability to create something just by writing the code for it. To get an idea of how powerful coding can be, check out this Google Hangout with Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter.

I want to challenge YOU and your students to make some time for an hour of code. Give your students the opportunity to build something impactful, something meaningful, something they can be proud of. "It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path." - Code.org

Here are a few resources to help you get started:

http://code.org/

http://hourofcode.com/us#b11g04t20w14

https://www.khanacademy.org/hourofcode

-Clint Rogers