The team’s expertise in CAD and 3D printing led to a request from one of the district’s elementary schools for help with 3D printers, which were acquired without a plan for their use. Christian, a sophomore who became so skilled last year that he landed an internship at a dental device printing company, led the development of our PRINT READY! curriculum project.
Our team members created, tested, and refined a series of lessons that address the important considerations, issues, and logistics for elementary teachers who want to implement 3D printing projects with their students.
Our innovative activities provide a content focus for teaching essential CAD skills and all the instructional materials needed. These include a Google Classroom with slideshows for presentations, a screencast to guide students in creating their own designs, and links to all the resources. The projects are cost and time efficient so each student can design and print two different models. The teachers will now be the students as the team leads them through the lessons in preparation for classroom implementation in the spring.
Every year, Pioneers "pay it forward" by mentoring district FLL teams. They work with teams weekly to support their collaborative problem-solving processes. They become role models and inspire younger students to learn new skills, persevere, and aspire to becoming Pioneers. Our members also volunteer as expert judges and referees in regional and state FLL tournaments.
In 2019-2020, our team programmed a native swift app that allowed visually impaired students to fully participate in classroom robotics. The app paired with the Lego Mindstorms EV3 via Bluetooth and used tactile and auditory features to engage the student. We made the local news and planned to implement this app more widely.
In 2020-2021, our team developed and tested alternative instructional materials that made coding accessible to an elementary student with cognitive disabilities.
In 2021-2023, the switch to the new LEGO Spike Prime robotics systems required us to start over to develop a compatible programming app for the elementary school robots. Our new IPad app was successfully tested by students with special needs in the spring. Now, it's functionality is continuing to be improved as the first group of students is using it to program with their classes.