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March
3, 2003 |
Robotics Used to Help At-Risk Students Score
Better in Math and Science
Rensselaer's Center for Initiatives in Pre-College
Education (CIPCE) has teamed up with Troy's Doyle Middle School
in a first-of-its-kind robotics project to help 8th-grade at-risk
students score better in math and science.
The goal of the intensive six-week pilot
project, which uses LEGO robotics, is to better prepare the
students for 8th-grade state assessment tests by motivating
them through hands-on classroom activity.
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The goal of the intensive six-week pilot project,
which uses LEGO robotics, is to better prepare the students for
8th-grade state assessment tests by motivating them through hands-on
classroom activity. Doyle Middle School has been placed on a national
list of at-risk schools due to poor performance on statewide assessments.
The 12 students, who will participate in the 45-minute
sessions three times a week, are part of a group of at-risk students
in Doyle's Stingray Program. Doyle launched the program this year
to target students who passed 7th grade by a narrow margin last
year and are therefore at risk of failing 8th grade this year.
The students are designing and building robotic
devices using LEGO® Mindstorms, which include standard LEGO
parts (plastic bricks, connectors, beams, axels, plates, gears,
and pulleys). The students also will program the software needed
to run the robots.
The robotics tasks will be geared toward specific
8th-grade mathematics and science content, such as proportional
reasoning and motion concepts.
"The robotics project will cover that well,"
says 8th-grade science teacher Caroline Lee, who is involved in
the project. "Students must manipulate the time, distance,
or speed to make the robots follow instructions. Using variables
is one of the hardest things for 8th- graders to do."
"The overall idea is to provide something
that's fun, that will increase retention rates and motivation,
and ultimately increase student performance," says CIPCE
Director Lester Rubenfeld.
The project is being funded through a $300,000
grant from the General Electric Fund. The grant, awarded jointly
to CIPCE and Rensselaer's Office of Minority Student Affairs,
was one of four awarded nationally this year. Sybillyn Jennings,
professor of psychology at Russell Sage College, is also collaborating
on the project.
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