This partnership brings together the Robotics Institute (Carnegie Mellon University), two institutions experienced in educational research and teacher development (Marshall University and West Liberty University) and school districts in West Virginia (Mingo County Schools) and Pennsylvania (Allegheny Valley School District). The key innovation of this project in the focal area of Identifying and Cultivating Exceptional Talent is its incorporation of robotics into courses for middle school students in a non-competitive setting to identify and cultivate talent in "exceptional computational thinking" and "exceptional engineering design." The project utilizes the Arts & Bots program which enables teachers to introduce craft-based robotics projects to students in disciplines as varied as art, science, health, or English.
Project Contributions
Creative Robotics: Broadening Participation Across the Middle School Curriculum
Watch Video >> Integrating robotics into core curricula exposes more students to innovative computer science experiences and can promote deeper understanding and engagement with content (Gura, 2011; Gura & King,…
Watch Video >> Integrating robotics into core curricula exposes more students to innovative computer science experiences and can promote deeper understanding and engagement with content (Gura, 2011; Gura & King,…
Engineering and Computational Thinking Talent in Middle School Students: A Framework for Defining and Recognizing Student Affinities
"In this paper we describe our process for synthesizing frameworks for recognizing student talents in the areas of Computational Thinking (CT) and Engineering Design (ED) from prior research. Computer science…
"In this paper we describe our process for synthesizing frameworks for recognizing student talents in the areas of Computational Thinking (CT) and Engineering Design (ED) from prior research. Computer science…
Identifying and Cultivating Diverse STEM Talent through Creative Robotics
"In recent years, there has been increasing concern that the United States K-12 educational system is falling short in preparing the technology innovators of the future. Students who exhibit the…
"In recent years, there has been increasing concern that the United States K-12 educational system is falling short in preparing the technology innovators of the future. Students who exhibit the…
