Five Questions With: Rebekah Gendron

"Young kids are naturally interested in building and experimenting. However, studies show that girls, in particular, start to lose interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as early as the fourth or fifth grade. "

Rebekah Gendron, president of the board of directors for Rhode Island Students of the Future, talked about how the organization got started with Providence Business News and its mission going forward. She also is the coordinator of instructional technology for the East Providence School Department.

PBN: Tell me about Rhode Island Students of the Future and how the organization got started.
GENDRON:
Rhode Island Students of the Future (RISF) was founded in 1989 to help teachers and informal educators share ideas on how they were using innovative technology in their classrooms. A group of 20 or more educators met monthly for over 15 years to share what they’d learned in professional development courses and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology media lab and the build-it-yourself lab in Cambridge. They talked about how they were integrating robotics and other technology into the K-12 curriculum, and demonstrated their students’ projects. One of their first collaborative projects was creating Robotics Park, an event that allowed students to share their projects with the public – Robotics Park continued annually for 25 years. In 2014, we decided it was time to re-think Robotics Park for a new generation, and we partnered with the Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative at Brown University to create the Robot Block Party, a larger community outreach event celebrating robotics created by students, used in university research and hard at work in Rhode Island industry.
The other early collaboration that shaped RISF was bringing the FIRST LEGO League robotics competition to Rhode Island in 2001. FIRST LEGO League has grown from 28 to over 70 teams. As we head into our 15th season, we have over 600 students participating on FLL teams in public, private and parochial schools, after-school clubs, community groups and homes around the state. I’ve been involved with FIRST LEGO League since 2001, and it’s a wonderful program to get kids involved in solving real-world problems.
Today, RISF is an all volunteer non-profit with a budget of just over $50,000. We receive funding from National Grid and the Textron Charitable Trust, Brown-MIT SSERVI SEEED, Navy Federal Credit Union, IEEE, Igus and Polaris, and have partnerships with the Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative at Brown University, Roger Williams University, Salve Regina University and Bryant University, Gordon School, Narragansett Pier Middle School, AIR 4H, All Saints STEAM Academy and Ricci Middle School, all of whom provide venue space in kind for our workshops, the Robot Block Party and FLL Tournaments. FLL teams pay a registration fee each season.

PBN: Why do you think it’s important for students to embrace technology early?
GENDRON:
Young kids are naturally interested in building and experimenting. However, studies show that girls, in particular, start to lose interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as early as the fourth or fifth grade. There is a big focus on workforce development skills in high school, but that’s late. It’s crucial that all students have access to hands-on, inquiry based STEM programs in elementary schools, so they have the desire and interest to stay engaged as the STEM content becomes more challenging.

PBN: Do you see more girls interested in technology and robotics, or is it still male-dominated?
GENDRON:
We’re proud to note that 42 percent of the 9 to 14 year olds who participated in the FIRST LEGO League program last season were girls. It’s great to see, and we hope to continue the upward trend. Last year, we partnered with Professor Chad Jenkins in the Brown Computer Science department to offer a coding workshop for 22 girls who were on FIRST LEGO League teams but had little coding experience. The course was led by Jie Ying Wu, an engineering graduate student. She was assisted by middle school girls who had been on FLL teams for a couple of years. In addition to the workshop, they toured Professor Jenkins’ robotics lab. It was an inspiring and wonderful program. We’re actively seeking funding to do more of these.

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PBN: Tell me about the FIRST LEGO League competition – how many R.I. schools usually participate?
GENDRON:
Coaches form teams and apply to participate in the program. We have about 70 teams across the state, most are based in public, private and parochial schools, but a growing number are in community organizations like AIR 4H or neighborhood teams created by parents whose kids attend a school that doesn’t have a team. Contrary to popular belief, coaches don’t have to have a background in robotics or engineering. There are plenty of resources to help the kids learn the skills. It’s more important that the coach be committed to letting the kids do the work and helping them learn “gracious professionalism” which is competing hard without trash talking or disrespecting your opponents.

PBN: The course at the Gordon School in East Providence sounded interesting – How many of these courses do you usually do each year and what do you think is the benefit for teachers and students?
GENDRON:
The course focused on preparing teachers and potential coaches to support children in robot design, programming, research and FLL core team values as well as helping them become more comfortable with managing and coaching a team. The course was very hands on—and the teachers loved how engaging and interesting it was. They take that enthusiasm back to their classroom. Some of the feedback from teachers in the course:

  • “I had a BLAST and I know my students will also.”
  • “Excellent overview of a Robotics Program for a beginner with no background.”

Since the FIRST LEGO League is built on coaches forming teams, anything we can do to encourage teachers to start LEGO Robotics clubs or FLL teams will help build capacity for more kids to participate.
We offered a three-day LEGO Robotics and a one-day LEGO We Do course over the summer, in cooperation with the Gordon School. The wonderful partnership with Gordon School allowed us to create the content, while Gordon School supplied the venue, laptops and 24 LEGO Robotics kits. This made it very easy for someone who was interested in learning more, but not ready to invest $400 on the LEGO robotics EV3 platform, to experience the technology and learn about it. (RISF does not currently own any robotics equipment.) In the fall, we typically offer three or four, two to three-hour workshops for teachers, FLL coaches and occasionally students. As an all-volunteer non-profit organization, the challenge is finding funding and volunteers to help us expand and grow. FIRST LEGO League and robotics programs are tremendous opportunities to engage children in STEM education. There is no shortage of children who would love to participate in a robotics program such as FLL and courses like this help prepare more teachers and coaches to be able to offer this opportunity to students around our state.

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