Project Lead the Way (PLTW), a nationwide program that provides learning resources in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), is doing all of those things for fifth graders in Gary Miller's technology class. They have been learning how to build and program a robot from scratch, then face off in a robotics challenge to test their skills against one another.
“It’s all group work so it requires a lot of cooperation and hands-on group problem solving,” said Miller, who gives the students minimal direction. “The creativity is wonderful to see as well as the collaboration among the students to learn how to accept ideas that may not be their own.”
Cuyahoga Heights Schools has been a PLTW participant for a number of years and some of the district’s science and technology teachers, including Miller, have been trained to teach the curriculum. In this scenario, the fifth graders have to build a robot base and can use additional parts from kits that Miller provides.
They compete in a robotic challenge to move a block representing nuclear waste from under an obstacle and over another obstacle. The students do the programming on their school-issued chromebooks, then download it to the robot and test their programming until they are able to make a successful trial in their simulations.