Arts & Bots, of course!

For this event, we combined the final exam periods for our Elementary Education pre-service program Instructional Media and Creative Arts Methods courses into a 4-hour experience. We discussed the mission of the CREATE Lab - to empower children of all walks of life, and particularly those who are underserved, at-risk, and perhaps on the Autism spectrum, to learn and grow and succeed. We then spent some time getting familiar with the Hummingbird board and all of its inputs and outputs and practicing some basic computer science concepts before getting to their task.

The learning target for the day was to: Represent a local, regional, national, or global issue you are concerned about using visual art and robotic components. They were inspired by a model created by an 11-year old, using fine art as backdrops for the life cycle and endangered status of sea turtles. They then created their own works through re-mixing and creation of original pieces that explored the issues of climate change, poverty, diverse classrooms, and more.

This was an eye-opening experience for these future teachers as they considered how technology, arts, and project-based learning might both hugely benefit broad populations of students and simultaneously cover more curriculum across more subjects in less time than traditional, sequential teaching methods.

It was an honor and a privilege to teach in this context today, using Arts & Bots as a vehicle to communicate love and concern for all children in our school system!​

On the first weekend of February, Satellite Network partner ASSET STEM Education led an Arts & Bots workshop for Utah CREATE Lab Satellites. 

28 faculty and partner educators from Southern Utah University Center for STEM Teaching and Learning (SUU), Utah Valley University School of Education (UVU) and Utah STEM Action Center (that is coordinating the expansion of the Satellite Network into Utah) participated in the two-day workshop. Participants learned everything from identifying components to programming a robot using 5 different languages, including the new BirdBlox app based programming via iPads. Here is what some participants had to say about the experience:

This training was a valuable first step in orienting our school and district partners toward not just the use of coding and robotics in the classroom, but the types of thinking that these activities help to develop across the curriculum. We are excited for the next step, and already have partners who are ready to integrate Arts & Bots into their instruction. Plus, it was so fun to combine coding and creativity!

Darwin Deming, Science Teacher, Mount Nebo Junior High:

At first the training for the Arts and Bots seemed like it would be applicable to only a technology class, but as we went through the training, it was apparent that it could be applied to a variety of curriculum. The trick is you need to get creative!

Lynae Puckett, School Librarian, North Elementary:

The Hummingbirds are an excellent fit for my library makerspace. I started the 5th graders in my school just a few days after I came back from the workshop. We've already talked about the different components and their possible uses. The next time they rotate through we will start making the connection between the hardware and programming pieces. I really enjoyed the workshop. The facilitators were patient and enthusiastic, and I have a lot of great ideas for applications at my school.

I thought the cup-bot project was cool because it was so simple and still helped people learn electronics and robotics, and I thought the concept of using painters tape and hot glue to hold things together and still be able to re-use them was also great! I think you should add string and maybe balloons or tubes to your stuff stash for building robots.

CREATE Lab Satellites in Utah and this workshop made possible by Infosys Foundation USA