Dana Pomykal Franz

Work in progress - collaborative outreach to “atrisk” middle school students using LEGO robotics

Through an ongoing collaboration among Mississippi States Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, the College of Education and Fifth Street Middle School in Westpoint, Mississippi, pre-service mathematics teachers and “at-risk” middle school students come together to focus on learning STEM concepts in an innovative way using LEGO robotics. A key feature of this project is the highly visual approach to teaching and studying STEM concepts. The current phase of the project is directed toward “at risk” middle school students—students whose performance on assessments indicates a strong likelihood of their failure or discontinuance from school. Pre-service teachers participate in completing lesson planning and execution coupled with service-learning by delivering the lessons to middle school students. The collaboration between the university and K-12 faculty members AND across disciplinary boundaries (i.e. engineering and education) provides a unique opportunity to bring innovative approaches to the K-12 classroom.