| Outcome/Accomplishment:
Native American students in and around Cloquet, Minnesota, have
been participating in robotics courses thanks to the NSF-funded Engineering
Research Center (ERC) for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP).
The University of Minnesota, the lead institution of the CCEFP, has sponsored
the education outreach program, called “Shooting for the Stars” which enables
to students to discover robotics as both an after-school activity and as
an elective class in grades 2-12 at two schools, Albrook and the Ojibwe
School.
Impact/Benefit:
Robotics programs offer a way to expose students to skills necessary for
Science, Engineering, Technology and Math (STEM) careers. The programs
provide students with fun, engaging activities in which they can better
understand physics concepts as well as developing mathematical thinking,
problem solving, and programming skills. Team building is vital to
the process, too, as students participate in hands-on construction engineering.
More than 80 K-12 students to date have participated in the Shooting for
the Stars Robotic Program. Other engineering-related activities for Native
American K-12 students have involved more than 50 additional participants.
Explanation/Background:
The CCEFP’s Robotics Program is part of a larger set of initiatives in
northern Minnesota known as gidaa (gidakiimanaaniwigamig, "our earth lodge"
in the Anishinaabe language), designed to engage area Native American students
in active study as they work towards high school graduation and prepare
for postsecondary education in STEM areas. Other K-12 gidaa activities
sponsored by the CCEFP include science fairs and summer camps.
The CCEFP contributes to
the programmatic, course content, and financial support of projects under
the gidaa umbrella. These courses utilize several teaching resources—Lego
We-do Webots, Lego NXT Kits, VEX Kits, and Tetrix—led by local teachers
who have become subject matter experts. The Albrook School, a key
partner of the CCEFP, is reorganizing to find additional ways to motivate
students towards STEM fields. The school is piloting a robotics class
for inclusion in the school's curriculum and is working with the Fond du
Lac Tribal and Community College on an agreement that will enable students
to earn college course credit for completion of Albrook's robotics course.
In complementary efforts, the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
is in the second year of offering its robotics course and is in the initial
stages of creating a pre-engineering program. |
