With help from a Verizon Innovate Learning Grant, sixth- and seventh-graders at The Learning Community in Central Falls will learn to build their own robots and create software applications.
The $20,000 grant, awarded in December, is being used to supplement several longstanding goals of the kindergarten through eighth grade charter school that serves children in Central Falls, Pawtucket and Providence. They include creating a technology curriculum and showing children future career opportunities in the science and technology fields.
“I have been wanting to do this with our kids for so long, to let them know the amazing opportunities out there for them. This really gives us, our school and students, the opportunity to really explore that,” said Michael P. McGuigan, a sixth and seventh grade middle school teacher at The Learning Community.
McGuigan said the grant will help the school create a space specifically for students to engage in technology – a place where they can try and build their own devices. It will help them realize that they are not only technology users, but builders, too, he said.
The school also has partnered with Brown University on its technology initiative, and has been working with representatives from its Computer Science Department. Students already have visited the Brown robotics lab, headed by Professor Chad Jenkins, where they were greeted by 5-foot-tall robots that hugged them.
“You should see the enthusiasm on the kids’ faces when they get hugged by a robot,” McGuigan said.
“The robots give high fives,” said Thomas Sgouros Jr., adding that “when you’re 11 you don’t need anything more than that.”
Sgouros, a programmer in Brown’s computer science department, has been working with McGuigan to develop the technology curriculum, and attends McGuigan’s “tech-readiness class” on Friday mornings.
Sgouros said his involvement is being funded through a separate $14,000 grant from NASA.
The hope, McGuigan said, is to develop a technology curriculum that can be replicated by other schools.
The sixth-graders are learning how to use basic computer applications, such as Excel and Microsoft Word, as well as coding techniques. In the next few weeks, he said he will introduce them to the concept of creating their own websites and Web pages, as well as animation techniques and how to build an “interactive website” instead of a “static website.”
Seventh-graders are delving deeper into coding, and through the partnership with Brown, will learn Web-based technology, programming and developing code, as well as how to use remote coding to control robots from afar, he said.
McGuigan said the Verizon grant money will help continue the Brown partnership, and pay for needed materials.
“For me, as a teacher, it’s kind of challenging and kind of scary, to talk to 12-year-olds about remote-controlling robots somewhere else in the world,” he said.
Sgouros said the same software that runs a $40,000 piece of equipment is basically the same software that runs a Lego robot.
The Learning Community is one of 80 schools nationally to receive a Verizon Innovate Grant, and is one of four in Rhode Island.
Michele Cinquegrano, regional director for Verizon Government Affairs, said the grants help teachers engage students in science, technology, engineering and math – or STEM – education.
The other schools receiving $20,000 grants are: Highlander Charter School in Providence, which will use Seaperch, a robotics program that uses underwater technology to encourage students to engage in STEM subjects; James R.D. Oldham Elementary School in East Providence, which will teach students about engineering and technology through project-based learning; and the Providence Career & Technical Academy, which will focus on product development using computer-aided design, MindTools and 3-D printing.
Cinquegrano said Oldham is the only other school, besides The Learning Community, that has already received its funding. •
