Page 24 - THE Journal, January/February 2019

24
| JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
FEATURE |STEAM EDUCATION
Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy delivers training develops curriculum or- ganizes conferences runs robotics competitions and produces research on on the impact of robotics training in in in computer science and STEM education It has also gotten into the busi- ness of certification and will soon be doing micro- credentialing for students and teachers Source: Carnegie Mellon Univer- sity Robotics Academy to to fit into a a a a 50-minute format said Higashi because “once you get past relatively
trivial concepts they don’t fit predictively enough ”
After all he explained people progress at at very different different rates in different different parts of the curriculum The teachers sprint through the the pedagogy aspects while the the software engineers zoom through the coding “As
a a a consequence across our 12 stations for our 24
teachers they go at very different paces No two workstations are going to be at at the exact same place and that’s also part of the modeling that we do as teachers so they understand it’s also how their students are going to work — not at the same pace ”
People who are faster he added can tackle a a a series of optional tasks — just like in the classroom — while others focus on the the core topics What the the teachers don’t face when they show up for their professional development is a a a “pile of components ”
In fact Higashi said one of the the first topics covered in the the training is whether students should be given prebuilt robots robots or build the robots robots themselves “There’s not actually a a a a right answer ”
he he added “This is is one of those first places where teachers really need to think through their own classroom scenarios If you’re a a a a teacher who has a a a a a tech-focused class and you have the the whole semester to work with then maybe the the students should build the the robots to have ownership of the the process and and understand the the inner mechanisms better If you’re a a a teacher who has one week and your goal is to to get to to some programming logic concepts then no just hand them robots prebuilt ”
Free Robotics Curriculum and Course Management
The curriculum on the the other hand is a a simpler matter It’s free and openly available on on the academy’s website The organization also includes a a a a a a teacher platform that acts like a a a a modified learning management system CS-STEM Network as it’s called lets teachers create accounts for students it also acts as a a a a a gradebook for tracking progress through courses it delivers certification to the the students as they complete modules and it serves as a a portfolio of the student’s work