A Tale of Two Robotics Camps: Inspiring Students to Become Future Engineers

Purpose & objective

In 2014, U.S. News & World Report had presented a troubling picture. The source found that just 24 percent of the overall engineering workforce in the U.S. were women, which actually marked a slight decline from the previous three years. Furthermore, in terms of racial diversity, the research indicated that African-Americans and Latinos make up a small fraction of the engineering field – amounting to some 12 percent of the total workforce. The biggest challenge that exists for educators is how we best diversify the workforce this is integral to future growth, success and innovation in the field by closing the opportunity gap for underrepresented minorities and girls in STEM.

The presentation shares how Redland Unified School District (RUSD) leveraged collaborative partnerships with institutions of higher education (UCR, UCLA, UOR, CSUSB, UC Davis), business leaders (Oracle, PLTW, Bourns, ESRI, LEGO Education), and communities (CSforALL, code.org) to create the Summer STEAM Academy in Engineering, Robotics, and Computer Science to provide enhanced STEAM & Innovation learning to all students with a focus on girls and underrepresented minorities

Arduino is an open-source platform used for building electronics projects. Arduino consists of both a physical programmable circuit board and a piece of software, or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that runs on your computer and is used to write and upload computer code to the physical board. The Arduino programming environment is easy-to-use for beginners, yet flexible enough for advanced users to take advantage of as well. For teachers, it is conveniently based on the Processing programming environment, so students learning to program in that environment will be familiar with the look and feel of Arduino.
https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/ManualsAndCurriculum/

Evidence of success.: https://www.engr.ucr.edu/news/2021/08/09/tale-two-robotics-camps-middle-and-high-school-students-are-inspired-become-future

Outline

The presentation shares Redlands Unified School District’s vision to provide enhanced learning through STEAM & Innovation for all students with a focus on girls and underrepresented minorities. (2 minutes)
The presentation explores the programs offered to K-12 students to engage in learning experiences in computer science, artificial intelligence, robotics, engineering, integrated across curriculum during school, in extended day learning, summer camps and online learning programs. (10 minutes-Interactive Padlet session)
The presentation will share the collaborative partnerships with institutions of higher education (UCR, UCLA, UOR, CSUSB, UC Davis), business leaders (Oracle, PLTW, Bourns, ESRI, LEGO Education), and communities (CSforALL, code.org,). (3 minutes)
The presenter will discuss how RUSD collaborated with institutes of higher education to create the Summer STEAM Academy in Engineering, Robotics, and Computer Science. (5 minutes)
Student presenter from high school will engage the audience in a hands-on workshop to use the Arduino microcontroller to design and construct an electronic invention to a real life problem (10 minutes- interactive)
Student presenter from middle school will engage the audience in a hands-on workshop on how to program Makeblock mBot using Raspberry Pi and Scratch (10 minutes- interactive)
Students presenters will share their experiences in Summer Engineering and Robotics Academy (5 minutes- interactive)
The presenter will share the structure and function of various professional learning networks that were instituted to provide training and collaboration opportunities to teachers . (5 minutes)
The presenter will then elaborate how the program focused on student empowerment by providing them a platform to showcase their expertise and illustrate how teachers can tap on their student resources to serve as presenters and mentors to encourage other students. (5 minutes)
Presenter will answer any questions that the audience may have. (5 minutes-jamboard)

Supporting research

https://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2015/02/24/stem-workforce-no-more-diverse-than-14-years-ago
https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/engineering-still-needs-more-women
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/07/14/85-of-jobs-that-will-exist-in-2030-haven-t-been-invented-yet-d_a_23030098/
https://dschool.stanford.edu/