Nice story from http://www.times-standard.com/article/NJ/20171003/NEWS/171009964
"McKinleyville 5th grade class given Lego robotics sets"
By Hunter Cresswell
On Tuesday morning one Morris Elementary School fifth-grade class
was surprised with Lego sets that will be used in lessons to introduce
students to science, technology, engineering, art and math fields.The two Lego robotics sets, two sets of miscellaneous bricks and a base plate pack were requested by teacher Amber Coley and paid for with funding from Chevron.
“This was something I’m super excited Chevron Fuel Your School provided,” Coley told her students.
Though she said she was excited, it was her students who were really enthusiastic.
“What’s in the box?” Carter Reves asked from the back of the class before the plain cardboard box containing the Lego surprise was opened.
The more than two dozen students in Coley’s class crowded around her for the reveal.
“Legos!” the students exclaimed as Coley held the sets above her head so all the kids could see.
Chevron public affairs field manager Marian Catedral-King said the program gets funding during the month of October when people gas up at Chevron gas stations. Every 8 gallons of gas purchased gives $1 to the school district the gas station is in, she said. In September, teachers across the states log onto donorschoose.org and submit funding proposals for their classrooms. Chevron picks certain projects to fund, the most recent of which is Coley’s STEAM project with the Lego sets, Catedral-King said.
“Since 2013, we’ve spent $400,000 in these counties,” she said about Humboldt, Del Norte, Mendocino and Lake counties.
This includes $183,000 in funding for schools across Humboldt County and $37,000 in funding for McKinleyville schools, Catedral-King said.
Coley said she wants to use these sets to teach her students to work together to build things and to code the Lego robot named “Milo” to perform simple tasks.
After the Lego sets were revealed, Coley broke her class up into groups two of which were given the robotics sets and followed instructions to build Milo while the other groups were given buckets of Legos to work together to create their own version of a robot without instructions. The different groups created a variety of designs for robots.
“We’re building a spaceship,” student Damie Leydecker said. “We’re going to Mars, we’re going to Venus, we’re going to the sun!”
Damie, Carter and the rest of their group were all very excited to get their hands on Milo and write code.
McKinleyville Union School District superintendent Jan Schmidt said programs like this help teachers who sometimes pay for classroom supplies out of their own pockets.
“Sometimes we face challenges because our budget, our dollars, don’t go as far as we’d like,” she said.
“You have one of the most fabulous teachers in the district, Mrs. Coley,” Schmidt added.
Read the full story at its source: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4319519438240916039#editor/target=post;postID=7192654146535475487
It is timely to stimulate children's knowledge and they will perform a lot of accomplishments in the future, That will make us better society.
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