• The A-MAZE-ing Dash!

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  • September 22, 2016

    Robots are most always fun … except maybe in certain sci-fi films.

    One in particular is the A-MAZE-ing Dash at Pleasant Union Elementary School.

    The little critter certainly is helping Tech Facilitator Annette Hymel and AIG Resource Teacher Heather Shipley.  To use collaboration and critical thinking – part of the 4 Cs (the others are communication and creativity, which also come into heavy play) – in teaching math skills.

    Watch Dash well, um – dash!

    Students were challenged to build a 20,000-square-centimeter maze, then program Dash to navigate it.

    The task at hand:  incorporating right angles, acute angles, obtuse angles and parallel and perpendicular lines. What’s the point in programming a robot if it doesn’t have to make a lot of turns, right?

    Students also had to use different sounds and loops as they developed coding to program Dash.

    “We get to help each other out if we don’t know something, but sometimes we argue so we try and compromise,” said one very collaborative fourth-grader.

    Trial and error

    Students set up their courses with Keva blocks. They were scored on how few blocks Dash knocked along his journey.

    “As we practiced, many blocks got knocked over, and so the kids had to really experience failure as part of the learning process,” said Shipley. “They just kept doing trial and error retesting.”

    “Dash hit the blocks, like 20 times at least,” said another student who, with his teammates, decided that 100x200 centimeters would provide more open space for turns than their original design of 500x40.

    angles

    Loving learning

    “The students love this lesson,” said Hymel, citing Dash, of course, but also the opportunity to work together and solve problems. “They are able to program Dash to go through the maze and to see their work being accomplished.”

    “This is something I’m hoping they’re going to remember for a lifetime.”

    2 kids

  • Why 'Dash' Matters

    We are closer than ever to reaching our goal of 95 percent of students graduating per year by 2020. For the 2015-16 school year, 87.1 percent of our students are graduating – a record.

    To keep this success going, our Vision 2020 strategic plan has specific goals for how we teach to ensure students are learning at their best. 

    Central to our work is the 4 Cs:

    • Communication skills - A non-negotiable for college and careers
    • Critical Thinking skills to make sound decisions and solve problems
    • Collaboration with diverse groups to accomplish common goals
    • Creativity - New ideas and their refinement, analysis and implementation

    The 4 Cs are the foundation for how we teach our students and how they learn. The very essence of good learning can be found in these simple concepts.

    Teachers across Wake County are using the 4 Cs concepts to inform their teaching. They also are using them to share best practices with one another and, of course, to ensure that students are learning well.

    Teachers like these at Pleasant Union know that they can meet and surpass academic standards if they use their own creativity and collaborative skills to develop lessons and activities that enrich the classroom experience and foster the love of learning.