All students in seventh and eighth grades at the Henniker Community School all take a six-week intro to robotics class taught by Aaron Boucher as part of their STEM learning during the school year.
During the six-week session, students become familiar with the basics of programming a robot and can complete individual challenge programming tasks. They also work in teams to complete their tasks as a group and build upon on one another’s challenge successes so it takes less time to complete all of the group’s assigned challenges in the least amount of time.
“No question, the learning curve with the robots, in the beginning, is steep, said Boucher. “But in the end, everyone seems to enjoy the class as they see their robot zipping around the mat and doing exactly the task they were programmed to do.” Boucher also adds a pizza incentive to further encourage the students. “In the end, the group who has accumulated the most points in completing challenges (the more difficult the programing challenge, the more points are earned) in 2.5 minutes wins a pizza party.”
“I think the class is exciting, fun, and challenging. It introduces nicely the process of thinking and engaging,” said seventh grader Carter DeCurtis. “There are a lot of jobs in programing and this class gives you a preview of what you might want in a career using technology.”