Posted on May 4, 2017
Author Mary Perren, WKVI
The Starke County Youth Club’s after school and summer programs are helping to prepare youngsters in all grade levels for life after graduation. Program Director Melissa Smith-Watkins oversees all six sites. Ultimately she says they want to help Starke County thrive by teaching skills like collaboration, problem solving and goal setting to students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
That’s done in part by using a Lego Robotics curriculum throughout all grade levels.
“Kindergarten, 1st grade, elementary-size students – they build a robot out of Legos and they use an iPad,” Smith-Watkins explains. “They learn about motor controls, they learn about computer programming, just with some very basic drag-and-drop logic sequencing that’s right there in their hands.”
Middle and high high school students will have a chance this summer to build underwater robots as part of the SeaPerch curriculum developed by the U.S. Navy.
“They are going to learn about motors and controls. They are going to build the circuit boards, and just so how those kids play with controllers when they’re at a game station at home, our kids this summer are going to build that controller. Then it gets connected to a robot that is underwater safe, and they’ll get to compete with their robots to navigate it through various obstacle courses.”
Smith-Watkins says the students will pick up some valuable skills in the process. They will learn problem solving, how to read and follow a manual and how to solder.
The summer curriculum will be offered at Knox, North Judson-San Pierre and Oregon-Davis. Find more information about this and other Starke County Youth Club program offerings on their website, www.thescyc.org.
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