Hands-On AI Robotics Program to Join the Intermediate School STEM Curriculum
This past school year, intermediate school students in the Canon-McMillan School District piloted a hands-on artificial intelligence( AI) robotics program that will be a part of the fifth and sixth-grade curriculum this coming school year.
Dr. Mark Abbondanza, assistant to the superintendent for K-6 curriculum and instruction, sought input from STEM teachers to keep the District’ s STEM curriculum innovative in the face of an ever-changing technological landscape. One solution: uKits from UBTECH Education, an exciting robotics program centered around students building and coding their own robots with AI. Two STEM teachers, Brittany Higham at Cecil Intermediate School and Brook Sharpnack at North Strabane Intermediate School, piloted the program this past school year.
“ It’ s important for students to understand AI’ s capabilities and ensure they use it correctly in an educational setting,” Higham shared.“ We want them to see and incorporate its capabilities into their academic lives.”
Students receive essential background knowledge on how AI works, learn about its pros and cons and learn how to use AI productively. Sharpnack lays the groundwork for the lessons by asking students to consider the AI tools they currently use to demonstrate how integrated AI is in their lives and to underscore the importance of understanding AI.
Through different lessons, the students learn about force, motion, building, design and engineering processes. The building process is extraordinarily detail-oriented from start to finish. Students tinker with the pieces carefully, referencing the digital 3D models and building instructions. They are fully engaged and working collaboratively, raising their hands to ask questions and taking turns with their partner to add pieces to their robot. While pieces may break off or students may face challenges during the building, they keep moving forward resiliently and discuss how to overcome their building obstacles. As the students build the robot, they connect it to a battery pack and then the robot runs based on code that they create.
“ They’ re using teamwork and problem-solving from the moment they start building through to when they’ re taking it apart,” Sharpnack said.
Students program automatic speech recognition and natural language processing to interact with the robot. They write the code and perform the functions necessary to get the robot to work. For example, in one sixth-grade lesson, they built a robotic arm to pick up an item, move it in different directions and place it down. In a fifth-grade lesson, they built a golf club that could hit a golf ball toward a hole on a putting green.
“ They love that it is a hands-on activity,” Higham said.“ They’ re building, problem-solving, thinking outside the box, working as a team and learning communication skills. They love the handson component and want to be building.”
The uKits will be part of the STEM curriculum for all fifth and sixth-grade students this coming academic year.
“ By exposing them to these AI lessons, they’ re gaining realworld experiences and seeing how AI can be beneficial and used safely,” Higham said.“ In the hands-on activities, they are fully engaged. All of the students actively participate and want to complete the assignment. Their excitement has increased, and I think this is a great program for us to incorporate into fifth and sixth grade.”
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