Belmonte STEAM Academy students are learning how to build and program robots to undertake missions as they prepare for a FIRST LEGO League Challenge.
Sixteen Belmonte fifth-graders in the afterschool robotics program created LEGO robots and are in the process of figuring out how to program them to complete up to 17 different tasks.
Operation Cargo Connect is the theme and the students are charged with configuring robots in ways to move goods safely and efficiently.
Split into two teams, the students will demonstrate their newfound robotics skills during the FIRST LEGO League Challenge set for Dec. 4 at Melrose High School. They will have 2 ½ minutes to accomplish as many missions as possible using their robots.
The afterschool robotics program launched five years ago and interest has steadily increased amongst the student body.
Teacher Bill Palmerini, who oversees the robotics program with fellow Belmonte STEAM Academy faculty member Trudy Williamson, said 70 students wanted to participate this year.
Fifth-grader Isabella Cantrell told the Advertiser it’s enjoyable to work with classmates on getting the robots to complete missions.
“It’s really fun and engaging,” Cantrell said, adding that the robotics program has her thinking about potentially pursuing a career in engineering.
Surrounded by her teammates, Daniella Quagenti was focused on the task of maneuvering a robot to unload cargo from a LEGO airplane.
Quagenti said she was glad she signed up for the afterschool robotics program and was looking forward to the competition next month.
“Robotics is interesting and I get to hang out with my friends,” Quagenti said.
A focus on project-based learning
Williamson said the maker space classrooms in the renovated Belmonte STEAM Academy are ideally suited for project-based learning such as the robotics program.
The maker spaces are designed to foster hands-on activities that allow for a deeper level of understanding of the material being taught to students, Williamson said.
Thanks to a grant through Project Lead the Way, Palmerini is providing every fourth-grader and fifth-grader at the Belmonte STEAM Academy lessons in an engaging classroom environment this year.
Project Lead the Way encourages students to solve real-world problems through collaboration and critical thinking.
Palmerini spent the summer training on the Project Lead the Way curriculum and is teaching fourth and fifth-graders those lessons in 2021-2022.
Subjects sprinkled throughout the year include properties and reactions, energy collisions, robotics and automation, waves and properties of light, Earth’s water and interconnected systems, Ecosystems: flow of matter and energy, Organisms: structure and function, and patterns in the universe.
Based in the STEAM wing, Palmerini teaches the lessons to the students 10 straight school days to make sure the material resonates.
Currently, fifth-graders are designing a robot that is tasked with going into an imaginary nuclear reactor to remove a hazardous substance.
Palmerini quickly embraced Project Lead the Way’s emphasis on educators taking a step back from lecturing to serve as more of a facilitator who allows students to better explore the subject matter.
“It’s exciting to see how excited the kids get about all of these hands-on activities,” Palmerini said.
The plan is to showcase what students have learned from the Project Lead the Way modules after the holidays and then again in May or June, Palmerini said.
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