Transformer Training
LEGO robots plus local youngsters equals hands-on science fun.
Sixth-grader Wilson Feniera gets some pointers from Jeffrey Sheppard
By Karen Feldscher
Middle schoolers Wilson Feniera and Andrew Robinson are putting wheels on their yellow, red, blue, and green LEGO car. They want it to go as fast as possible.
Just normal kid stuff? Not exactly. Once they finish building the car, they’re going to try their hand at programming it, too.
Programming robot LEGO cars is a new challenge for the nineteen Boston middle schoolers gathered in the basement of the Vine Street Community Center in Dudley Square on this sultry July morning. But the kids are under the cheerful guidance of seven middle school teachers from Boston and beyond, part of a three-year-old Northeastern program aimed at introducing students to robotics.
The program’s hands-on nature, say the instructors, makes everything click.
Jeffrey Sheppard, who teaches technology at Triton Regional Middle School, in Byfield, Massachusetts, calls the program “spectacular.” It’s a great introduction to the engineering design process, he says, because it teaches technology and boosts students’ literacy, their ability to work with diagrams, and their computer skills.
Funded through the National Science Foundation and the Argosy Foundation, the effort helps students of all learning levels and styles develop critical-thinking skills related to engineering design, says program director Randal August, associate academic specialist at the College of Professional Studies.
There are three components. First, a group of teachers spend a week during the summer learning the program basics. Then they spend a week teaching what they’ve learned to local youngsters. Finally, during the fall and winter, the teachers try the program at after-school sessions in their own schools.
The middle schoolers learn engineering design principles, computer programming, and information-technology concepts, all through LEGO robotics. The program tries to hook them on science, August says, so they’ll consider studying engineering when they get a little older.
So far, the program has trained nearly seventy teachers, about 250 students during the summer months, and more than 1,000 students in the after-school programs.
To reach Boston students, Northeastern has held the program at several Roxbury community centers, through a collaboration with the Timothy Smith Network, which provides technology to the centers. It also uses the Christa McAuliffe Challenger Learning Center, at Framingham State College.
August says that, if he can get the funding, he hopes to expand the program both locally and nationally.
Today, sitting at a LEGO-strewn table with Sheppard, Wilson and Andrew press a button to make their car go. It spins in a circle. The kids figure out the programming problem and make an adjustment. The car goes straight.
“It’s working now,” says Sheppard. “That looks really nice. Good job.”
Wilson, who goes to Mary Curley Middle School in Jamaica Plain, says the class has been fun.
“You get to build robots, and you get to program them on the computer,” he says. He admits the work is a little bit hard. “But when you get the hang of it, it’s really not that bad.”
Karen Feldscher is a senior writer.