WORCESTER—Worcester-based robotics education startup True Robotics recently hosted a community outreach event at The Vernon Hill School. Called “Blasting Off With Pilot: Robotics on the Hill,” this educational enrichment workshop was held for more than 250 students in third through sixth grades, and their teachers. True Robotics brought more than 80 robot kits and lesson plans to introduce the students and staff to its project-based curriculum classroom packages through four hours of robotics building, programming, and testing.
“True Robotics’ project-based curriculum aims to get students engaged through collaborative activities that provide a foundation for the fundamental concepts, tools, and academic vocabulary associated with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM),” according to a press release. “The subjects are just as important as the soft skills; we want kids to learn teamwork, and interpersonal skills and to grow digital literacy. The intention is to prepare students for further academic endeavors and get them engaged and excited about doing so.”
Vernon Hill’s principal, Craig Dottin, connected with the program coordinators previously, but had reservations about the school’s ability to take on more coursework, in that it could create more difficulties for teachers by piling on a new program with new coursework.
“Acknowledging their Title 1 status, president and co-founder Anthony Galgano decided that this is the exact type of demographic that needs True Robotics the most; potentially at-risk youth from low-income areas who haven’t gotten the opportunities that they need,” continued the release.
Galgano, who attended middle and high school in Worcester at St. Peter Marian St. Paul’s Diocesan before graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2022, said: “True Robotics is based in Worcester—we should be helping the people of Worcester, especially the kids.”
The classroom packages are specifically designed to take the “guesswork out of teaching,” explained True Robotics spokesperson Thelonious Norton. “We provide all the tools the teachers would need and a detailed lesson plan for every day covered. They also come with professional development. Anthony figured the best way to help the kids AND the overworked teachers would be to dedicate some time to the school.”
The workshop at Vernon Hill, according to organizers, “could not have gone any better.” Students who attended were fascinated by the robot kits, helping one another in workgroups of 3-4 students. Over the course of four hours, the students learned how to build the robots and program them to move.
“They made mistakes, reached out to ask questions, and then tried again,” said Norton. “Eventually, they all succeeded in building, programming, and testing out a robot. The students were all asking when they could do it again soon. Three staff members from The Gerald Creamer Center, a nearby alternative education institution, caught wind of the event and stopped by to check it out. They were so taken that they stuck around for a few hours and helped assist a number of students.”
Teachers have commented to True Robotics coordinators that it’s an ongoing struggle to keep students focused throughout the day.
Audrey Brooks, a teacher with a sub-separate therapeutic classroom of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders at Vernon Hill, was impressed by the impact the program had.
“What I’ve seen today is immense engagement with kids,” Brooks said in a release. “I’ve seen kids who struggle with being in a group and struggle with directions pay attention and follow along. I’ve seen kids who struggle to engage be very engaged, and the hands-on aspect has not only kept them engaged all day, but my classroom usually has a lot of ‘behaviors,’ and I’ve seen no behaviors today. My kids who struggle the most are being the most successful.”
Brooks acknowledges the challenges that come with STEM and project-based learning and that the True Robotics program was “surprisingly user-friendly” and appreciates that “everything is included.”
While the Vernon Hill School doesn’t currently have a formal STEM program, Brooks is part of a program that is working with WPI to bring more STEM and project-based learning into the school.
“Just having all the components ready for us is a huge plus, not just for teachers but for kids to see it all organized right away,” she said in a statement. ”Usually, that leans on us, the teachers, to pull it all together and organize it so it is user-friendly for the student’s experience. Then to also have all of the staff here facilitating that was so great. We got to let the kids just try. And succeed, and fail a little too. And failure is good because, with that failure, the kids get to try again, which is exactly what we are trying to teach them. If you make a mistake, just keep trying, because eventually, you’re going to get it.”
True Robotics is working with Brooks, Dottin, and the district to implement the program at The Vernon Hill School in the next couple of months “and, hopefully, others in the Worcester Public Schools system soon.”
“Without Worcester, we wouldn’t be here,” Galgano said.
Contact Charlene Arsenault at carsenault@theworceterguardian.org
