BY MELANIE YOUNG
trentontrib.com
Eighth-grade students at Arthurs Middle School have some exciting new technology tools to utilize thanks to a grant provided by the Trenton Educational Foundation.
Arthurs Technology teacher Valerie DePaoli applied for the grant and received $5,000 to purchase Lego Mindstorms EV3 kits for the students.
According to Lego, the EV3 materials and software give students a hands-on approach to develop problem-solving skills and can engage and motivate students to learn science, technology, engineering and math concepts.
DePaoli has been teaching in Trenton for 16 years and for six years in the Arthurs Technology Lab. The grant of $5,000 allowed her to purchase 12 complete sets of robots. The robots will be part of the technology curriculum so all students in technology classes will get to use them.
The idea to seek the grant came to her because of her seventh-grade students and their interest in the robotic arm that she utilizes in some of those classes. The school only has one, which isn’t really enough to teach the amount of children in each class. The cost to purchase another arm would be $8,000-$10,000, so she sought out other options. She was able to purchase more kits to use with more students with the EV3 program.
The eighth-grade students will utilize the EV3 program in conjunction with their studies about computer programming. The students also use a program called Scratch, a programming language where kids can program interactive media such as stories, games and animation. According to DePaoli, “Adding the Lego robots is a continuation of that.”
The students will build the robots and program them to follow a maze. They will then be disassembled and used for the next class. The first classes utilized the kits in mid-October.
DePaoli believes the kits will be a great asset to her students. “I’m hoping they can get experience with programming because there are so many jobs that use programming. I wish I would have known more about it.”
In addition to robotics, the Technology department has something for all students at Arthurs Middle School. There are 16 different classes available to DePaoli to utilize. Currently, sixth-grade students are learning aspects of keyboarding and computer graphic design. Seventh graders are learning about computer animation.
Along with computer programming, the eighth-grade students also learn a little about career exploration.
Thanks to the Trenton Educational Foundation, the new curriculum will help give those interested in robotics a chance to learn about the field and may provide more interested students for Trenton High School’s Robotics Club. They compete in FIRST Robotics competitions statewide. Their team is called the Trenton Torquenados. For more information, visit the group’s Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/groups/FRC5090/.
The Trenton Educational Foundation was established in 2008 by community leaders. The mission is to maintain an extra margin of excellence by employing private resources to supplement traditional school funding. Funds are used to supplement six core areas of education. Educators are encouraged to submit applications for grants by following submission deadlines.