Utah State University and Hill Air Force Base STEM Partnership

Utah State University and the Hill Air Force Base partner to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education July 12, 2011 Logan, UTAH - A three day Robotics Teacher Workshop took place at Utah State University (USU)in early July.

The workshop was a joint effort between USU, the Hill Air Force Base, and intelitek, a developer of training programs for STEM education, seeking to show the value of robotics as an educational vehicle to promote STEM education.

Gary Stewardson, Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering and Technology Education at USU, organized the event, in a partnership with Hill Air Force base. Hill AFB provided the funding for these materials through the National Defense Education Program (NDEP), a program designed to foster a new generation of scientists, mathematicians, engineers and technologists. Hill Air force Base representatives Judith Maughan, Educations Programs Officer, and Frances Bradshaw, STEM Outreach Coordinator, also attended the event.

“Judith Maughan and Frances Bradshaw with Hill Air force Base and the NDEP share a similar goal with me and the Department of Engineering and Technology Education (ETE) at Utah State University (USU),” explains Stewardson. “We are interested in getting STEM activities in the curriculum of Utah schools.

Judith Maughan purchased robot kits for ten schools, Intelitek supplied the instructor and curriculum, and I managed and orchestrated the workshop through Utah State University.”

Each of the ten schools received intelitek’s educational robotics package including intelitek’s easyC programming software, intelitek’s Robotics Engineering Curriculum (REC) and VEX robotics kit.

Stewardson is a strong believer in the effectiveness of the robots in education. Having hosted two regional Vex competitions and participated in several VEX robotics world competitions, he has seen the positive educational results.

“It becomes the carrot to teach important STEM concepts,” Stewardson says. “The design of the competition is a hybrid between an engineering challenge and sporting event. The sporting event environment adds excitement. The technical knowledge and skills required to design and build a competitive robot provides the curriculum content, both hard and soft skills, for example programming and teaming. The competition also creates a cooperative learning environment. Students share ideas and teams help each other. It is not just about winning.”

Stewardson’s goal is to bring the dynamic educational experience into the classroom, and feels he has found the vehicle to do so in Vex and REC:

“VEX robotics is able to provide students with engaging, inspiring, and motivating activities with an affordable platform, he says. “The REC curriculum enables VEX robotics to move from an afterschool club environment to an in-school classroom curriculum and become pre-engineering pathway. The REC curriculum would enable us to reach that many more middle and high school students.”

One of the unique aspect of this robotics workshop was the inclusion of both teacher and student participation. Each teacher was accompanied by two of their students. Having the students present gave teachers the opportunity to see firsthand how students responded to working hands-on with robots.

“The synergy of a team, teacher and students, helps in their success,” Stewardson observes.

Throughout the three-day camp, students worked through self-paced online curriculum running on intelitek’s LearnMate e-learning system. Students learned to build and program robots with the effective combination of online curriculum and hands on activities. The complete course was delivered to the student workstations via the internet and the local wireless network.

Rob Clarke, regional Sales Manager with intelitek, who helped direct the workshop, explains, “The students all work through Robotics Engineering Curriculum as prescribed - no jumping around or skipping pages. They functioned as students would in an REC Engineering Class and followed the REC 1 curriculum and the Intro to Competitive Robotics, in sequence”.

The ability to get their hands on the hardware and start building robots quickly enhances the learning process for students.

“I really liked the hands-on projects in LearnMate. I don’t like just reading about subjects. Being able to do stuff and start building right away is great,” said one student.

“This approach is fantastic,” Clarke says. “The teachers have the opportunity to have their students work directly in LearnMate with the REC Curriculum. The students are building amazing robots and programming very well. Teachers are amazed and very excited at the students’ response.”

At the end of the three-day camp, students put their robot designs to the test in challenges that tested their science and math skills. As an example, students were given a few chances to successfully program their robots to drive autonomously for three feet. Then, using only math skills, they determined what programming adjustments would be needed to change the distance to five feet. They were given only one chance to test their solution.

One teacher in attendance says “This workshop is fantastic. Sometimes at the end of a training workshop, I wonder how I will be able to implement it in the classroom. But watching these students working on their own, I can see it - this will work in my classroom.”

The buzz generated by the workshop is tangible. For many, this was their first exposure to VEX Robotics and the possibilities for the future are exciting, whether as enhanced classroom programs or through extracurricular robotic competitions.

Stewardson and Bradshaw are already anticipating good results and are planning on more workshops featuring the same format with student and teacher participation for the future. ”I have received several emails thanking me for this wonderful experience and opportunity. This is not typical of most workshops, even those I would judge as very successful,“ says Stewardson. “This is an opportunity to reach more schools and impact more students.”