Students at Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic School are gaining exposure to robotics and programming as the STREAM program flourishes. STREAM stands for Science, Technology, Religion, Arts, and Music and represents an integration of the arts and religion as students are prepared for STEM related fields.
Forty students in sixth through eighth grade are taking robotics classes. Students are introduced to concepts of engineering, robotics, and programming using Lego Robotics kits. The eighth grade students make up the school’s robotics competition team. They are gearing up for their first competition this month through the First Lego League Robotics Competition.
Students in first through fifth grade are also getting an opportunity to learn about robotics through the school’s weekly after school robotics enrichment program. Students work in teams to create and program robots while working on important skills such as collaboration, communication, and problem solving.
“The students are getting an excellent opportunity to learn about what it takes to program a robot. It’s exciting for me to see the ‘aha’ moment when the students get the robot to run correctly or complete a challenge. This also teaches the students about perseverance and problem-solving as they run into problems in their programming,” said Kristina Bacallao, STREAM coordinator at Our Lady of the Lakes.