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Unread 29-08-2012, 20:26
sanddrag sanddrag is offline
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Elementary to Middle to High School Pathway

My school district is in the process of spreading robotics to more schools (with the ultimate goal of all schools) at all levels, elementary (some K-5, some K-6), middle school (some 6-8, some 7-8) and high school (9-12). It's not yet clear if it will be during the school day, or extracurricular. It may vary between school sites. We'd ultimately like to get everybody on the same page (hardware and curriculum), so that we can hold intra-district competitions; one for the elementary level and one for the middle school level. We're trying to structure exactly how to sequence it, so that students are advancing in robotics as they move through each stage of schooling.

It's clear that Lego is the best platform at the elementary school level. Two of the district's high schools have an FRC team. Additionally, I also teach a primarily Vex-based robotics class at the high school level (10-12). I am also currently teaching a short 3-week module on simple graphical programming of autonomous robots in a 9th grade class (all 9th grade students in the school actually. Everyone takes this class).

The real hangup is in which direction to go at the middle school (grades 6,7, 8) level. Some are using Lego NXT platform, but what's the difference from what is being done at the elementary school level? The thought of Vex at the middle school is nice, and naturally leads into FRC at the high school level, but we still have high-school level robotics classes that are not associated with FRC, so where does that leave them? It's not exactly practical to run an FRC team as only a during-the-school-day class.

We want to see students start early and follow a clear progression/advancement of skills in learning robotics from elementary, to middle, to high school.

I'd like to hear any thoughts or opinions on how it should be done. The tricky part is going to be starting programs at places that have never had them, but still keeping them challenging enough for when they start receiving students with previous robotics experience from the lower grade levels. My worry is this reaching a state where we're teaching it to a majority of kids with no prior experience, but start getting increasing numbers of students with past experience who feel like they're doing the same things over again.

It may ultimately all boil down to budget and I may not be left much choice in the matter in the end, but while I do have some sort of say in it, I thought I'd poll the CD community and see what is being done in other school districts.
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Last edited by sanddrag : 29-08-2012 at 20:29.
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Unread 29-08-2012, 21:08
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Re: Elementary to Middle to High School Pathway

One of the things you could do for the Middle School is start a FTC team. One of the things you could do is have each FRC team start a FTC team. Not only does this help with Chairman's but it also helps teach your FRC members more leadership skills. This is a step up from the Lego NXT, and still lets to you teach VEX in your high school classes without having student's feel like they've done it before. Not only that, but it introduces your middle schoolers to FIRST rather then them coming into it at the high school level.

We, team 68, are starting a FTC team at our middle school this upcoming year. If you need any details on how to start one I can put you in contact with my team leader.
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Unread 30-08-2012, 02:53
MattS_FRC867 MattS_FRC867 is offline
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Re: Elementary to Middle to High School Pathway

Have you considered participating in Project Lead the Way?
http://www.pltw.org/

Our school recently joined PLTW. We already implemented one of the classes, Principles of Engineering, and I think they are planning to add more classes next year, Introduction to Engineering design and Digital Electronics. We use these classes as introduction courses for students who are interested in joining our FIRST team, which serves as the Advanced Robotics class but will probably change into the Engineering Design and Development.

It's something to consider.
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Unread 30-08-2012, 15:40
lmedina lmedina is offline
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Smile Re: Elementary to Middle to High School Pathway

So we have a district wide program that incorporates EARLY, FLL, BEST, VEX and FRC.

Our Elementary program starts with EARLY in 2nd and 3rd grade, we move the students to FLL in 4th and 5th.

The intermediate program is VEX based with our math magnet working with BEST.

At the high school level we have VEX, BEST and FRC.
We are also a PLTW district and all of our PLTW classes that use the VEX platform compete in an intra-district competition and robotics fair (new this year)

There is a ton more I can share with you if you like. Please feel free to email me at lmedina@ccisd.net
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Unread 30-08-2012, 21:51
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Re: Elementary to Middle to High School Pathway

In my experience, FLL is perfectly suitable for students up to 9th grade. FRC 1038 has started a number of FLL teams in our district - the number was 16 when I coached FLL back in 2008-9. Many of the kids on 1038 are FLL vets, resulting in less of a learning curve. I coached a BEST team last year after moving from OH to TN, and I gotta admit that I am not a big fan - I put FLL technology over BEST by far! The NXT platform is more relavent to FRC and allows more advanced programming and build then BEST - but it is not free, like BEST. If BEST openned up the rules more to take advantage of the VEX platform, I would be all for it! I started an FRC team at the same school I coached BEST last year, the kids were blown away at the difference...
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Unread 31-08-2012, 13:36
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Re: Elementary to Middle to High School Pathway

Quote:
Originally Posted by lmedina View Post
So we have a district wide program that incorporates EARLY, FLL, BEST, VEX and FRC.

Our Elementary program starts with EARLY in 2nd and 3rd grade, we move the students to FLL in 4th and 5th.

The intermediate program is VEX based with our math magnet working with BEST.

At the high school level we have VEX, BEST and FRC.
We are also a PLTW district and all of our PLTW classes that use the VEX platform compete in an intra-district competition and robotics fair (new this year)

There is a ton more I can share with you if you like. Please feel free to email me at lmedina@ccisd.net
Easily the most integrated robotics program that I have ever seen. Students are exposed to, and can participate in some sort of a robotics activity during their entire school career. This includes EVERY campus in the whole school district, which includes 26 elementary, 10 middle and 8 high schools. It is no wonder why the Robonauts are such a solid team.

Congrats on a job well done!
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Unread 05-09-2012, 13:59
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Re: Elementary to Middle to High School Pathway

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pjohn1959 View Post
Easily the most integrated robotics program that I have ever seen. Students are exposed to, and can participate in some sort of a robotics activity during their entire school career. This includes EVERY campus in the whole school district, which includes 26 elementary, 10 middle and 8 high schools. It is no wonder why the Robonauts are such a solid team.

Congrats on a job well done!
Sanddrag,

Virginia's Prince William County school system (plus the independent city systems in the county, and some private schools in the county) has many years of experience with a similarly diverse (ages and programs) suite of opportunities.

They do well at keeping their focus on the students, and take advantage of the best each of many programs has to offer.

I'm sure Denyse Carroll and the rest of the team there (here) would enjoy a chance to share their success stories, lessons learned, and other wisdom they have acquired.

Send a message to the address in my signature to get me to make the connection (Alternatively, you might try finding her (or me) through LinkedIn)

Blake
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