Twelve elementary and middle school science and art teachers from Mingo County took part in training Nov. 5 for Arts and Bots, a program that integrates technology, robotics and art.
Schools represented included Burch Elementary, Gilbert Middle, Matewan Middle, Williamson Middle, Burch Middle and Mingo Central High School. The training, presented by the June Harless Center for Rural Educational Research and Development, part of the College of Education at Marshall University, was funded by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
The Arts and Bots project uses familiar arts and crafts supplies, circuit boards, lights, motors and sensors. Students design, build and program robots that tell stories of literary and historical characters and events while promoting technological literacy and informal learning.
Arts and Bots is one of several projects implemented by the Harless CREATE Satellite, a branch of Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab at the June Harless Center. The satellite provides robotics and technology initiatives to West Virginia schools including Marshall University Professional Development Schools.
Due to its success, Arts and Bots, originally designed to encourage middle school girls’ interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) topics, was expanded to include both genders and a larger age range. The Harless CREATE Satellite enables educators and rural communities in West Virginia a real-time portal to the flow of cutting-edge technologies and programs being developed at the lab in Pittsburgh.
The vision of the CREATE Lab is to catalyze local and global community change by technologically empowering people to creatively explore, learn, share and directly improve our ecology. This initiative aligns with the mission of the Harless Center to provide leadership in education initiatives for West Virginia educators and students.
For more information, contact Dr. Stan Maynard at maynard@marshall.edu or visit marshall.edu/harless and cmucreatelab.org.
