Workshop: Robotics in Urban STEM Education: The Philadelphia Model
Velda Morris, Rebecca Stein, James F. Keller, Vijay Kumar · 2020
Abstract WORKSHOP- Robotics in Urban STEM Education: A Successful ModelTopic: Attracting young MINDS - outreach and recruitment of minority engineering students(including K-12)Overcoming obstacles in urban education for over a decade, a University and School District’srobotics education initiative has transformed the way students learn STEM. In a districtcomposed of under-resourced learners (76% economically disadvantaged) and those typicallyunderrepresented in STEM fields (62.4% African American and 17% Latino in the SchoolDistrict) the challenges to implementing a structured robotics program are apparent. TheUniversity and School District rely on the strength of a successful partnership to enhancelearning, access and awareness for students, teachers, parents and community members in orderto close the equity gap.The purpose of this workshop is to allow participants a chance to engage in hands-on inquirybased robotics learning, to foster an open discussion related to the issues in urban STEMeducation and lastly, to understand a successful model for creating robotics programs for boththe classroom and competitions (BEST Robotics, MATE ROV Competition and FIRST LEGOLeague). Discussion topics include: finding and preparing robotics mentors, seeking externalfunding and support, working in large and/or low funded districts, and overcoming the “roboticsis too expensive for us” or “my students can’t do that” mindset. Participants will leave theworkshop knowing how to develop robotics education programs in a variety of settings.