The Hardware Behind the Scenes in Robotics Projects
For the past two years, Shawn Abele, instructional technology coordinator at Gilbert Public Schools in Arizona, has put together a STEM event for female students throughout the district called GPS Girls STEMpowered. The students work with robotics and drones as part of this learning experience.
“In 2002, when I graduated, I was the only female graduate in computer science,” Abele says. This experience led her to create the event.
In planning to bring more than 100 students together for a robotics project, the first thing Abele had to consider were student devices.
“Middle and junior high kids brought their Chromebooks with them, and we supplied Chromebooks for the rest of the girls that were there,” she explains.
EXPLORE: Learn how Chromebooks empower educators in the modern classroom.
The Software Supporting K–12 STEM Goals
Abele and other organizers for the STEMpowered event also needed a way to efficiently share the lessons with students. Because the event takes place over the course of only one day, the instructors don’t have time to teach a full lesson or go in-depth with coding instruction.
“We created a Google Classroom that has step-by-step instructions for the participants to follow,” Abele says. “We give them all of the code and the instructions and everything they need to be successful. The goal is to expose them to it so they can see that this isn’t that hard and it’s actually kind of fun.”
In the Los Angeles area, the Beach Cities Robotics team knows how important software components are to its success.“The software we use for design is a CAD software that’s completely web-based,” says Gavin Sarra, Beach Cities Robotics’ mechanical lead and a student at Mira Costa High School in the Manhattan Beach (Calif.) Unified School District.
The designs are crucial to the success of the robots and, in turn, the team. “I’ll design the part in the software, and then I can make a drawing of it,” Sarra says. “That drawing will have all of the necessary dimensions for the fabrication team to go make the part.”
The design and creation of the robots wouldn’t be possible without the right technology in place to support Sarra and the other students on his team.
DISCOVER: See schools take project-based learning to on-site apiaries.
Schools Add Infrastructure for STEM Events
None of the student devices, software or coding would work without adequate internet access and bandwidth.
For the STEMpowered event at Gilbert Public Schools, the IT department temporarily expands the networking capabilities in the gymnasium where the event is held.
“They put temporary access points in in various locations throughout the gym so they can handle the bandwidth and support 180 girls,” Abele says. “Our whole department comes together to pull this event off.”
