Hauppauge Middle School Rolls Out Robots to Engage Students in STEM Curriculum

Hauppauge Middle School has introduced three NAO robots to enhance its technology education and to help engage 6th graders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. Stella, Tennessee and Williams are two-foot tall, voice-activated robots with cameras for facial and object recognition, microphones for voice commands, voice synthesizers so they can “talk” and two high-fidelity speakers.

Using a program called Choregraphe, the students are learning how to “teach” Stella, Tennessee and Williams to converse, walk in a path, recognize objects and much more. “The 6th graders are using their Common Core mathematics skills to design programs that incorporate the use of Timeline, which is a tool they use in Choregraphe,” described Mathematics Teacher Amy Thompson. “The students are rapidly becoming knowledgeable about how to create documents and to share them with me and their classmates as well as how to upload designs from Choregraphe to run on the NAO robots.” These activities promote collaboration among all the children as they learn by doing. “Working together to create and problem-solve, the students develop successful designs that implement the skills they are being taught,” said Ms. Thompson. “If their designs fail (as they often do on the first try), the students go back to the group and make modifications until they create a successful program. They are learning to be innovative, creative, and most importantly, to be life-long learners.”

In addition to robotics, this is an all-digital class. The 6th graders are learning how to use Google Drive to receive teacher notifications, Do Nows and Study Guides all in Google. “They even take their quizzes on Google that I have created for them on Google forms,” described Ms. Thompson. “All of these initiatives are helping students build important technological and problem-solving skills, while simultaneously promoting collaboration, communication and out-of-the box thinking to achieve real-world solutions.”