CN: October 19, 2016

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October 19, 2016

The robots are coming! Community Voices

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By Dr. Charles J. Pearson

Around Town

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School

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Fall leaf collection program begins

Students at St. Louis College Prep work on building a Lego EV# Mindstorm robot provided to the school through the Clavius Project.

Photo by Nicholas Elmes

The Clavius Project is expanding robotics programs into St. Louis County schools

The right ingredients

By Nicholas Elmes An innovative nonprofit is bringing robotics and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education to middle schools throughout the St. Louis area. Birthed at St. Louis University High School (SLUH) two years ago, the Clavius Project is now helping 23 schools in the area build robotics programs and founder Jeff Pitts said the project will continue to expand in coming years. “We are adding another seven schools in the spring,” said Pitts. “We provide the robots and the software. We take care of the licensing and we also send educators to a two and half day long workshop at Ranken where they earn a $100 per day stipend and get continuing education credits.” The program also provides schools with mentors from SLUH and St. Louis University to help guide students and educators through the initial set up and programming of their robots. The program is using Lego EV3 Mindstorm robots which can be easily constructed and programmed using a click-and-drag interface. While Pitts is spearheading the project now, he said credit for its genesis lies

with the students and staff of SLUH. “Robobuild, their robotics club, and Mr. Steve Nicollerat, a technology teacher there, came up with an idea to do some community service,” said Pitts, adding that they were able to attain a $38,000 grant from the Innovation and Technology Fund. “They had the idea and the money, but were unsure of how to carry it out.” At the same time, Pitts, who had recently retired from his management position at Anheuser-Busch, was trying to figure out a way to bring STEM education into area middle schools. “I realized SLUH had a smaller idea, but had a clue and had had taken some action, and I had this big idea but did not have a clue and had not taken any action yet,” said Pitts, “so I volunteered to lead this thing. I went to 14 middle schools and talked to their principals about the concept and they were excited about the idea. Nine schools originally signed up and we helped them establish robotics clubs.” At the end of that first semester the Clavius Project held a big Jamboree for students to show off all the work they had done.

“When our students graduate from middle school they will have been exposed to robotics, coding, and all of the math that is involved in negotiating the different behaviors for the robot,” Pitts added. “Our whole goal is to find that young man or woman who you just know is disposed to doing STEM as an See ROBOTS page 2

Business

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AARP call to address Social Security

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