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12 years of
Impacting Our School
F.R.E.D. is highly involved in sustaining and growing FIRST programs. One way we have done this is by actively bringing STEM into the Warroad School. Team 2883 has worked with our school district to develop new curriculum for all ages, and is constantly continuing to develop more. Down below is more information on the ways we have incorporated STEM into the school.
High School Curriculum
Team F.R.E.D. is creating opportunities for students in the Warroad community and school. One way we have done this is by creating new curriculum in the high school. Our robotics program has played an important role in creating classes including: Robotics, Fabrication Lab (FabLab), Drafting, and Engineering. These classes have given students from our small community the opportunity to get real life experience in the STEM fields. Two of these four classes are also College-In-The-High-School courses; students who take these classes receive college credit through Itasca Community College. If it were not for the collaboration between Team 2883 and Warroad High School, these students would not have the opportunity to receive college credit while getting an in-depth look into what STEM is all about.
Bringing in New Equipment
Team F.R.E.D. has also brought in over $480,000 into the school through grants and funding from Marvin Windows and Doors. This money has been used to add new technologies including various CNC and drafting equipment, as well as a complete Maker Space (FabLab). This coming summer our industrial technology wing will also be getting a full renovation through the referendum that our community has passed. This will be used to create a new state-of-the-art shop.
STEM A La Carte
A new initiative this year is the "STEM A La Carte." Team 2883 secured grant funds to organize, purchase, and develop a mobile cart to use within the school. This cart is equipped with Sphero Robots, Parrot Drones, Little Bits Electronics, and Lego EV3 Robots. All of these activities will be used in order to get students interested in learning about programming, engineering and design. This cart is intended to be used throughout our entire student body, this means students from kindergarten through 12th grade will be using the cart.
Elementary Curriculum
Development
In an effort to expand those involved with STEM, our robotics team has secured 30 Lego WeDo Sets to incorporate within our elementary math and science curriculum. Our team members help train and facilitate the Lego WeDo programs with the teachers. Our team has found that this has sparked an interest in STEM and FIRST, and has increased the interest in both FLL and FRC within our community.
Summer STEM Camp
In the summer, we provide a week long STEM camp for 4th through 8th grade students. Our teams spends the week showing these students just how fun STEM can be. The students participated in many different activities including: making parabolic hot dog solar cookers, assembling model rockets, and learning how to use GPS technology. All of these activities showed our campers that they could still have fun while learning. After the week came to a close, students left with a smile on their face and a greater understanding of what STEM is all about.
