Innovation in the Grade School

By Kylie Delwiche

For many of the students at Princeville Grade School, on the first day of school, they walked throughout the halls anticipating the new year. But little did the students know that many of the staff had spent the entire summer creating a whole new area for the kids to learn in. The Innovation Lab was added in hopes that the students could work on what the Grade School hopes the focus of this year will be. Their STEAM projects.

Construction for the Innovation Lab started as soon as school was let out but the planning behind it began last year. Mrs. Jenkins, Technology Coordinator, and Tracy Strebel, Multi-Tier System of Supports Coordinator began organizing funds from the summer Chromebook sale to help purchase many of the elements that were going to be placed inside of the lab.

The Innovation Lab was not the only element that was added to encourage growth within the school however, many pieces of technology were also added for the kids to use. One of these pieces was a robot named “Dash”. Dash made his first appearance in the high school last year, and this year was brought over to the grade school. Through Dash, the kids are now able to use coding to move and control the robot around.

Dash was just the beginning for the new pieces of technology however, shortly after, other devices were also introduced such as the “Makey Makey” and the “Merge Cube”. These devices are different in the way they are projected but they all share the same purpose of teaching kids coding in a way that they have not had the opportunity to experience before.

Julie Bayless, Grade School principal, stated, “our job is to encourage our students to ask questions and create, so giving them these opportunities is leading them towards innovation.”

Throughout the years, the Grade School has continued to inspire its students to create and explore things that matter to them and will continue to do as it makes that their main focus moving forward.