Robots are Fillmore’s newest science and math teachers
Shown are some of Brandi Walker’s 4th grade students working with robotics. The students need to use various math skills including reasoning and deduction in order to program the computer to make the robots move certain directions and pick up items. Upper grade teachers rotate teaching their students in the robotics lab. The robotics were purchased with NASA funds.
Shown are some of Brandi Walker’s 4th grade students working with robotics. The students need to use various math skills including reasoning and deduction in order to program the computer to make the robots move certain directions and pick up items. Upper grade teachers rotate teaching their students in the robotics lab. The robotics were purchased with NASA funds.
By Anonymous — Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
Story Courtesy Celebrating Fillmore, The Official Publication of the FUSD

At San Cayetano Elementary School, Students are reaching for the stars –and remote control devices.
Last year, San Cayetano was one of 50 schools nationwide that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration selected as a NAS Explorer School. The innovative program is designed to bring NASA’s engaging math, science and technology lessons to teachers and students. Robotics is an important component of the curriculum.

Last summer, San Cayetano teachers Brandi Walker and Melanie Schrock attend a week-long workshop at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to become proficient in teaching robotics. After sharing what they earned with other upper-grad teachers as the staff created a schedule that allows most fourth- and fifth-graders 13 one-hour sessions to learn robotics.

Teachers assembled the robots; the students added enhancements and completed all the computer programming to manipulate their movements.

“This is truly a combination of hands=on math and science,” said San Cayetano Principal Jan Marholin. “How will a student ever forget the first time he or she has programmed a computer using math skills and reasoning?”
Most students are already technologically savvy, having been exposed to computers all their live, so they are fast learners, said Marholin. “They get it, they love it, and it’s an amazing thing to watch.”

San Cayetano has entered JPL’s annual robotics competition this spring to see how the students’ skills stack up against teams from other NASA Explorer schools. In the competition, which JPL will broadcast live on its web site, students pre-program their robots to navigate an obstacle course and perform tasks such as retrieving simulated planetary mineral formations – all within two minutes.