Insights
Please enjoy this sample article from our Insights service. If you are an Outsell client, log in now to access all Insights articles. If you are not a client, click on the link below to try a 30-day subscription at no charge, or click on Add to Cart to sign up for a one-year subscription.
Futurama – New Robotics Curriculum Hoping to Bridge Gap of STEM Instruction
By Laurence Bloom
May 2, 2008
Important Details: Innovation First, Inc., a developer of educational and competitive robotics products, has partnered with Autodesk, Inc., a designer of 2D and 3D design software, to co-develop a new K-12 robotics curriculum called the VEX Robotics Inventor Curriculum. The companies used feedback from teachers, schools and districts to assist in the design of the curriculum, which is in accordance with the educational and teaching standards of subjects in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, better known as “STEM.”
Innovation First plans to include the VEX Robotics Inventor Curriculum at no extra charge with the purchase of the VEX Robotics Design System Classroom Lab Kits. The new curriculum contains a set of 18 module units. Each set contains its own lesson, concept, and activity for teachers to apply to students in secondary and postsecondary education.
Implications: Through its new robotics curriculum and hands-on learning model, Innovation First is providing teachers with a tool that engages students in technology and engineering, which are areas that proponents of STEM have seen as lacking. This new solution underscores the growing popularity that robotics curricula play in K-12 schools for effective STEM instruction. Lego Education provides its Lego MINDSTORMS Education series of construction sets, programming tools, and curriculum activity packs as a way for teachers to engage students in the classroom or after school as part of their STEM curricula. Furthermore, the growing popularity of robotics has evolved outside the classroom setting into student contests, such as the 2008 FIRST Tech Challenge, which provides students with a platform to demonstrate their knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, math, science, and technology through robotics.
There is no doubt that the business community and policy makers have placed a challenge to schools to develop more effective teaching methods that strengthen students’ preparation to succeed in STEM subjects that ultimately translate into more technically advanced workforce skills. In the 2007-08 school year, 38 states require at least three years of math, and 35 states require at least three years of science before graduation. Most notably, 48 states now have standards around knowledge and usage of technology. Reinforcing the importance of STEM is the American Competes Act, which calls for new spending (an estimated $840 million in fiscal 2008) to create and expand STEM programs in K-12 and undergraduate education. The fact of the matter is these STEM mandates and laws are building momentum for a market for STEM-related curriculum. As a result, K-12 education publishers and suppliers have an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage by developing innovated “on-hands” curriculum targeted at STEM subjects.
In a previous research report on high school science trends, Outsell research found that technology and multimedia components are becoming increasingly important to districts in the teaching of science courses. Furthermore, the research found that districts are expected to begin offering engineering courses to students that crossover math and science in order to provide broader exposure to STEM subjects in an effective way. As stated by one district official, “students should be given the opportunity to do a project they are interested in such as weld together a trailer, change [a] car into a non-gasoline vehicle, etc.” As the K-12 market continues to work through questions pertaining to the effectiveness of online instruction, the VEX Robotics Inventor Curriculum offers publishers a model for developing more traditional and “hands-on” curriculum for students to improve in the areas of mandated STEM subjects.