Nonprofit promotes STEM careers

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER: The Rhode Island School of the Future pushes robotics as means to develop both soft skills and those relevant to the engineering field. Above, Julia Smith of Cranston referees at the FIRST Lego League robotics tournament at Roger Williams University on Jan. 11. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL PERSSON
PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER: The Rhode Island School of the Future pushes robotics as means to develop both soft skills and those relevant to the engineering field. Above, Julia Smith of Cranston referees at the FIRST Lego League robotics tournament at Roger Williams University on Jan. 11. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL PERSSON

For the Rhode Island School of the Future, instilling values like persistence and teamwork in students through robotics competitions is more important than contest-winning technology tricks.
The educational technology and science principles promoted through the Warwick-based nonprofit are “more about what they learn than what they win,” said Executive Director Mary Johnson.
Despite the altruism inherent in that goal, the nonprofit that incorporated in April 2013 wants to be able to demonstrate that its efforts in promoting technology education lead to higher learning and careers in science, technology, engineering and math, so that it can win grants to support programming that, by itself, is not financially self-sustaining, Johnson said.
To that end, the all-volunteer nonprofit has just added a new member with expertise in data and impact studies to its board of directors, Johnson said, though implementing a methodology is still a couple of years away.
“We are in the middle of a strategic planning process, and plan to write a Rhode Island Foundation grant to bring in a consultant to help us create a data collection and tracking system that will allow us to better gauge the impact our programs have on kids in Rhode Island,” Johnson said.
The Rhode Island School of the Future’s mission is to inspire youth to become science and technology leaders by involving them in mentor-based programs that build STEM skills. But self-confidence, communication and leadership are just as important, Johnson said. The programs the nonprofit runs are the Robot Block Party (formerly Robotics Park), FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League and Jr. FIRST Lego League.
At the 13th annual FIRST Lego League Rhode Island Robotics Tournament, sponsored by Rhode Island School of the Future and National Grid and held at Roger Williams University on Jan. 11, Julia Smith, 18, of Cranston, helped referee some of the contests. She participated in the league for several years and is now a student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass. For Smith, who is studying engineering at WPI, robotics helped develop not only the soft skills but also pursuit of an engineering degree and career – in this case, in the biomedical engineering field.
“It wasn’t really something that was on her radar,” Johnson, who was Smith’s coach for four years, said of her pursuit of engineering at th institute. “Her exposure early on really did open up her world view to the idea that engineering is a way you can make people’s lives better.”
Said Smith: “Robotics helped bridge the gap between science and engineering technology. It made me see I wanted to do something with engineering rather than just the science.”
Founded in 1989, the Rhode Island School of the Future’s original mission was to promote technology education through workshops in professional development for teachers around the state. In 1992, the organization became involved with FIRST, inventor Dean Kamen’s vehicle for inspiring students in the engineering and technology fields.
Through the years, the school has run the programming for FIRST in Rhode Island by partnering with local nonprofits and universities, creating a set of rules and implementing them for the challenges that FIRST comes up with for teams of young people.
Growing at a rate of about 13 percent per year in the number of teams that participate, RISF helped 40 teams in 2004, 74 teams in the 2013-14 academic year and expects to support 100 teams by 2015, Johnson said.
“We serve 800 kids a year,” Johnson said. “We just incorporated as a nonprofit so we can start raising money. In 2013, we [had] a budget of $30,000 a year – about $15,000 from team fees and a few thousand dollars in donations, plus $15,000 in in-kind contributions.” About 180 volunteers ran the Jan. 11 tournament.
Individually, in addition to national fees, it costs a team of 10 or so $75 to advance to qualifying tournaments and another $150 to participate in the state championship, she said.
With only a few thousand dollars in grant funding available this past year, targeting funders for grants by providing them with data about student performance could help offset costs for the competitions, which even with in-kind donation of the university or public school venue still costs money to cater and provide security, Johnson said.
RWU freshman Nicholas Corey, 18, of Little Compton, won a total of $20,000 in scholarship money in robotics contests over four years.
His new engineering class at RWU has taught him to implement simpler solutions in order to get five Ping-Pong balls into a basket 9 feet away. The project has taught the team to work within certain restrictions using only certain material, and use engineering methods to state a problem, generate ideas as a team, select a solution, build it, evaluate and analyze and present results, he said.
Though more involved, his class work now builds upon problem-solving and teamwork techniques used in FIRST competitions, Corey said.
Tracking Smith, Corey and others is a long-term goal that Johnson hopes will lead to more grant money to support the growing participation.
“Between the Facebook page and LinkedIn page we’re trying to stay in touch with our alumni,” she said. “The goal, though, is to find a way to actually track involvement in STEM in a less anecdotal way.” •

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