Clifton Bossong is the Assesment/S.T.E.A.M coordinator at the Carnegie Science Center and he has been using the NAO Robot for the past 8 years with his students. This is his story.
Coordinator Clifton realized that NAO was the perfect tool for him 8 years ago when the school decided to buy a robot. Since then, "The versatility of NAO has allowed our school to use it in a number of different situations" he said.
Coordinator Clifton uses the robots as tools to teach how S.T.E.A.M. is used in the career and technology fields. The robots travel to community events, elementary schools and middle schools within the nine area school districts to demonstrate the importance of knowing a computer programming language. "Our favorite part about NAO is that it gives us the ability to work with elementary through high school students to teach programming".
When they travel to schools, the robots are used for career exploration sessions. Each session lasts approximately 40 minutes with between 4-6 sessions per day.
Coordinator Clifton has noticed that the biggest educational impact has been the students ability to use the robots to learn different programming languages. And when they use the robots in a career exploration session, the students take on leadership roles by driving these sessions. "The social impact is tremendous" said coordinator Clifton, "When people see the NAO the first time and learn all the capabilities the robot has to offer, it impresses upon them the importance of S.T.E.A.M. as well as careers within those fields"
The impact in the community and the school districts is enormous, he said. By bringing the robots to the schools, it allows students within those schools to be exposed to technology they might get to experience. Students are thrilled to see that they can program the robot to do simple tasks after a short lesson. "School districts have been very appreciative of our program to help promote S.T.E.A.M. within the career fields" said coordinator Clifton.
What an awesome job! Are you interested in having a NAO robot ? Ask for price quote request.
