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Credit: Robin Corbeil
Robotics competitions can engage students in STEM
Technology teacher Robin Corbeil explains it's not just about learning
a specific block code language, but rather about students gaining
confidence in a new area.
Robin Corbeil
Oct. 10, 2019
As the computer instructor for Litchfield Middle School, I’ve tried
different ways of engaging my students in coding as well as science,
technology, engineering and math (STEM) in general. Some tactics have
been less successful than others.
For example, I tried Code.org, but my students lost interest after a
day or two (the courses have probably changed since then). I also took
on responsibility for the math club, but although we did do some
competitions, it was a struggle to get students to even be associated
with the club because it wasn’t considered "cool." We even tried
turning it into a STEM club, but we just couldn’t increase membership.
Two years ago, I began managing student teams for robotics
competitions. That engaged some students, but it took a lot of time,
effort, energy, knowledge and direction. However, in 2018, our school
took part in an online coding and robotics tournament, Cyber Robotics
Coding Competition (CRCC). That event took less of my time, was easier
to manage, and our school won second place in the state of New
Hampshire. And I was able to pull it off with little more than two
years’ experience in computer science under my belt.
One of the best things about CRCC is that it can easily accommodate
teachers with no experience at all. Participants had to program virtual
3D robots to perform complex tasks and missions, but it didn’t require
a ton of my time to get set up on the competition’s CoderZ Cyber
Robotics Learning Environment. Also, it wasn’t something I had to take
students through step-by-step. The missions were very intuitive, so
they could work independently. They really didn’t rely on me for
answers, direction or motivation.
The CRCC consisted of four components, the first of which was a
professional development webinar for teachers and mentors. The second
was a boot camp in which students and educators learned about coding
and robotics in a virtual, highly scaffolded “sandbox.” After that,
students participated in the qualifiers, competing individually to earn
points for their schools. In the finals, which took place nearby at the
University of New Hampshire, teams of students represented our school
in an in-person event that was a lot of fun.
I incorporated CRCC into my 7th-grade computer class by letting
students work on the competition’s missions for the first 15-20
minutes. The official objective was for every student to complete just
the first 10 bootcamp missions, but quite a few completed the entire
bootcamp and moved on to the more complex qualifier missions. It was a
nice destresser for them because it wasn’t assessment based, and it
wasn’t something they had to do with a partner.
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