TIPS won a competitive grant valued at nearly $6000 from the Lego Foundation in order to run Jr. First Lego League (FLL) teams that emphasize the participation of both rural and female students. Jr. FLL is the entry to For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), which was founded by Dean Kamen in 1995 and has grown into an international phenomena with 250,000+ students in 80+ countries competing in robotics. Kamen took inspiration from Little League when he framed FIRST with a vision of parent and community volunteers wrapping around kids to build problem solvers that could tackle the world’s toughest problems. Each year, FIRST selects a theme to organize the competitions, such as Animals last year and water for the coming year.
Orchard School participated in hands-on professional development where Paul Fitzgerald modeled mentoring teams to Media Specialist Donna Sullivan MacDonald and Rachael Barone. Every student in Mrs. Barone’s class participated during class time and each team had an adult mentor. Each session was part of a deliberate progression designed to empower the students to work independently and be able to successfully integrate planned activities as the foundation of student directed activities. Mrs. MacDonald-Sullivan took the initiative to spread the program to other k and 1 classes at the Orchard School.
Folsom School Media Specialist Cornelia Thoma developed her own program for enrichment time during the school day at the Folsom School in South Hero. Folsom students worked on projects such as making drawing robots.
Richmond Elementary School after-school enrichment teacher Darcie Rankin deeply embraced the “team” model where kids selected team names, designed t-shirts and worked with adult mentors.
Each school hopes to participate again in the 2017-18 season and TIPS is hoping to keep the robots in continuous use. If you are interested in learning more about TIPS, please visit the website or contact Paul at pkfitz@tipvt.org.
Orchard School Videos
Folsom School Videos