The learning has begun for Manchester students
taking part in the city’s inaugural FIRST®
Junior STEAM Ahead program. After several months of planning, Beech Street
School, Green Acres and Jewett Street School are bringing the popular FIRST® LEGO®
League (FLL®) program into fourth grade classrooms. FIRST Junior STEAM Ahead is expected to
enhance science and math curriculum like never before.
The creation of FIRST
Junior STEAM Ahead happened with support from FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology), an international not-for-profit public charity based in Manchester
that motivates young people to pursue education and career opportunities in
science, technology, engineering, and math. FIRST
has been encouraging young people's interest and participation in those
subjects for more than 25 years, since it was founded by inventor Dean Kamen in
1989.
As part of the FIRST
Junior STEAM Ahead program, each fourth grade classroom will participate in FIRST LEGO League with teams of six
students. During lessons that apply math and science concepts, they will
design, build, and program robots using LEGO® MINDSTORMS®
EV3 and other LEGO elements. The students not only practice skills such as
computer programming, team-building, and effective communication, but they also
start to understand the scientific process and creative problem-solving to find
innovative solutions to real-world issues.
Members of the business community are giving
hands-on guidance to FIRST Junior
STEAM Ahead classes, another benefit of the collaboration with FIRST, which recruited mentors for their
expertise. Participating companies include SilverTech, Wasabi Ventures, Autodesk,
DEKA, NH High Tech Council, Fuentek, Robbins Farley, and Salesforce/Cloud for
Good.
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