1. Building Bridges, Robots, and High Expectations
- Author
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Bennie, Fiona, Corbett, Charlotte, and Palo, Angela
- Abstract
This article describes an after-school program at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf (HMS), the oldest public day school for deaf students in the United States, where almost half of the student body imagined and created bridge and robotic machines. The Deaf Robotics Engineering and Math Team, or the DREAM Team club, included HMS students in grades three through five and grades six through eight. Using an engineering curriculum guide the student's goal was to compete in the Boston Public Schools Robotic Olympics. Both challenges required students to follow and create diagrams and engage in the engineering design process. At the same time, as they worked together they developed skills in the five C's: (1) communication, (2) collaboration, (3) critical thinking, (4) cooperation, and (5) creative problem solving. In order to measure the impact of the after-school engineering experiences, elementary students were tested before and after they participated in the program and testing revealed that the students improved their attitudes about engineering and understanding of what it meant to be an engineer.
- Published
- 2015