Wonders All Around

Learning Alongside My 5th Grade Wonders

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#SOL19 Day 23: Our Robofest Competition

“Welcome to the 2019 Gallimore Elementary Robofest Qualifying Competition!” I say into the microphone. About 100 pairs of hands clap, not for me, but for the 12 teams of students and their coaches who will be showcased this morning. They have worked for almost 3 months to build and program their own small robots that can move and stack tissue boxes.

I look at the sea of students in their blue t-shirts sitting on the gym floor, many of them nervous about how their robot will perform in the upcoming matches. “Raise your hand if this is your first robotics competition.” About a third of the hands go up.

“Today, no matter how the robots perform, we are celebrating all you have learned this season. Raise your hand if, at the beginning of the season, you didn’t know how to turn on the robot.” About a dozen hands go up. “What about those who used light sensors to help with driving the robot? Who used these for the first time this season?” About two-thirds of the hands go up. “One last question: how many of you tried something completely new with your robot this season? Maybe you built a new kind of attachment, or created MyBlocks, or learned how to use different command blocks in programming. If you learned something new, raise your hand.” This time, all of the hands raise! Some students know they learned so much they raise both hands and wave them in the air.

Coordinating these teams, mentoring them throughout the season, and hosting this competition takes so much time, but I do it so these students have this chance to learn how to do some pretty amazing things!

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