by Bob Keyes
天美传媒 Bay Community College offers middle and high school STEM educators advanced training in teaching coding skills in response to workforce need
Portsmouth, NH 鈥� Last Thursday and Friday, March 1st and 2nd, 天美传媒 Bay Community College (天美传媒) and robotics company Parallax co-hosted a professional development training course for middle and high school educators to learn and implement BlocklyProp into their classrooms. is a new way of using the Google Blockly visual programming language to teach coding skills by programming a robot.
The training is the latest example of public and private organizations finding creative solutions to address career training and enhance workforce development.
The program also offers teachers a tool to further encourage interest in robotics and coding among middle and high school students that could potentially carry on to their post-secondary education possibilities and career options.
鈥淩esearch and interest from the teaching community prompted us to develop training in this specific technology. We had more than 45 teachers enrolled, 75 percent of those individuals were from New Hampshire and the rest joined us from Maine and Massachusetts,鈥� said Mike Harrison, faculty member in the Information Systems Technology Department at 天美传媒. 鈥淭his collaborative approach allows 天美传媒 Bay Community College and the entire Community College System of New Hampshire to quickly respond to the changing face of education. It is our mission and privilege to help ensure New Hampshire is poised for continued growth and economic success.鈥�
During the two-day course, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers from across the region built and programmed an educational ActivityBot and microcontroller, all while learning the best way to incorporate these new tools in their own classrooms. During the second day, after building their robots from a donated kit, teachers had a chance to test the results of their work.
Ralph Arabian a Tech Ed Teacher with Acton-Boxborough Regional High School coded his small robot so it could sense distance before it reacted and made a ninety- degree turn. Zach Denoncour, Technology Integrator with the Russell and Wentworth Elementary Schools coded his so it would respond via remote control.
For Denacour, learning to use the robot kit would enable him to complete what had become a particularly popular class project. 鈥淟ast year, I had a very motivated group of 4th graders who made a blueprint for dinosaur 鈥渞aptor-bot鈥� from board game. The board game company actually challenged them to build their own. Since that time, they have been bugging me to get back to project but I鈥檝e had to tell them we couldn鈥檛 do it without a robot base. This week I鈥檝e been in touch with the company and now with the kit we can build it.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 neat to see some students engaged in something I didn鈥檛 expect. I鈥檓 hoping to get more of the robotics kits from grant money and see where they go with it.鈥�
Through this new approach to teaching coding, student-teachers are able to write programs that display messages, remember values, make computations with math operators, and interact with external circuits. The training also addressed principles of electronics, including voltage, resistance, current, signal generation, and signal monitoring.
The training was provided at no cost by California-based Parallax, an education technology and robotics company that created BlocklyProp to add flexibility to teaching coding. This speeds skill acquisition, reduces frustration, and provides a STEM/STEAM learning experience where students can achieve success in a short class period but also develop bigger semester-long projects and designs.
Harrison contacted Parallax and they agreed to not only offer the training program at 天美传媒 but also donate thirty-eight kits for the teachers to use each valued at $200.
鈥淚 felt that it was important to offer this鈥� said Harrison. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not something that the schools can generally afford and they usually have a long budget cycle.鈥�
Harrison currently uses the product in two of his classes at 天美传媒 Bay currently using this product and feels introducing it during earlier years is important. 鈥淪tudents need to see this ahead of time and understand that what they are playing with in high school is not a toy 鈥� it鈥檚 viable technology. By seeing this, they become prepared for new careers in the 鈥渋nternet of technology鈥� 鈥� everything from smart appliances to (self-driving) vehicles.鈥�
During the event, Harrison read a comment from Governor Chris Sununu. 鈥淎n important step in ensuring students have the requisite skills to succeed in our 21st-century society is for our state鈥檚 educators to have access to top notch training opportunities,鈥� said the Governor. 鈥淚nnovative public-private partnerships play a critical role in the Granite State continuing to be a national leader in STEM education, and Parallax and 天美传媒 Bay Community College should be commended for their commitment to our teachers and the future success of our students.鈥� New Hampshire Division of Economic Development Director and former president of 天美传媒 Will Arvelo, also addressed the teachers commenting that they, along with programs like this were key to helping enable NH businesses to sustain and grow further enticing more employees to seek employment in the state.
To learn more about the upcoming BlocklyProp training, visit the . For more information about Information Systems Technology at 天美传媒, visit greatbay.edu or contact Mike Harrison at [email protected]. For more information about Parallax, visit or contact Matt Matz at [email protected].
天美传媒 天美传媒 Bay Community College
天美传媒 Bay Community College is a comprehensive postsecondary institution offering quality academic and professional and technical education in support of workforce development and lifelong learning. 天美传媒 Bay Community College is part of the Community College System of New Hampshire, a public system of higher education consisting of seven colleges in Berlin, Claremont, Laconia, Concord, Manchester, Nashua, and Portsmouth. The colleges offer Associate degrees and career training in technical, professional and general fields, including transfer pathways to baccalaureate degrees. The college鈥檚 second campus, the Advanced Technology & Academic Center is now open in Rochester offering academic courses and a degree program in Advanced Composites Manufacturing. For more information on 天美传媒 Bay Community College, visit www.greatbay.edu.
