CLASSROOMS ON A ROLL
Learning labs hit the road in local school districts
With a 2-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus rex robot moving as they passed by, streams of students last Friday entered Plum School District’s Mobile Maker technology lab equipped with a laser engraver, 3-D printer, 3-D pens and other devices.
It was the first day the new mobile classroom was put to use. The 28-foot-long trailer was parked outside Regency Park Elementary School and will make its way to other elementary schools in the Plum district.
Inside the Mobile Maker, students typed their names and used a laser printer to print them onto wooden rulers. Others used a 3-D pen, which produced a stream of soft orange plastic to fill small forms to create the sides, bottom and bumpers of a car. After the plastic hardened, they connected the parts with more plastic to make small cars.
The Tyrannosaurus rex robot, which purrs when its head is patted and moves whenever someone passes by, has 64 different movements that students can control by positioning a lever on a computer circuit board for each of the dinosaur’s parts.
Learning how to make the dinosaur move prepares children for the computer code they will learn later, said Martha Freese, a gifted education and intervention teacher.
Teacher Lindsey Lamm spent seven hours building the T-Rex robot, but fourth- through sixthgraders in the Regency Park afterschool STEAM Club built the other robots in the lab, including “Basher,” a small robot with many arms; an ant; a spider; a catapult; and a crane.
Students in kindergarten through second grade were given a box of gears, which, when they put them together, can create four different robots, including an alligator with popping eyes who chomps and a crab. This week the youngsters were to program miceshaped robots to go through a maze by using directional arrows on the mice.
Instead of giving students answers, Mrs. Freese asks them targeted questions so they can come up with solutions on their own to each problem they encounter using the technology.
The mobile classroom was created after Regency Park staff members, with a grant from the Benedum and Grable foundations, equipped a room at the school as a science, technology, engineering, art and math — or STEAM— classroom.
But they wanted children in all four of the district’s elementary schools to be able to usethe new STEAM technologies. So last year, Justin Stephans, who was then principal of Regency Park, and Mrs.Freese applied for and received a $20,000 grant through the Allegheny Intermediate Unitto buy the trailer.
Current principal Jeff Hadleysaid the inside of the trailer was outfitted by four teachers from O’Block Junior High School — woodshop teacher Phil Beatty, science teacher DaveMischen, art teacher Bill Depew and technology educatorJason Steele.
High school students Dakota DiLiscia and Alexis Nader won an art contest at the high school, and their designs were used to decorate the outside of the trailer.
Mrs. Freese said teachers and students will use the new STEAMequipment across the curriculum. For example, she said, sixth-graders who are studying aerodynamics can use the laser cutter to cut out foamgliders.
She said teachers want to show students it is OK to make mistakes and that failures in troubleshooting technology often lead to success. The mobile classroom provides them with a safe environment in which to do that, she said.
Both Mrs. Freese and Mr. Hadley said the mobile lab will teach children to learn persistence in problem solving.
“Our goal is to equip our students with the skills, problem solving and the exposure to technology, so as [technology] changes, they can change withit,” Mr. Hadley said.
The mobile classroom will be at each of the district’s four elementary schools for nine weeks each year, he said, and the lab could possibly be loaned out at some point to otherdistricts.
Plum isn’t the only district going mobile.
The Fox Chapel Area School District received a $60,000 grant from The Grable Foundation to build and design a mobile Fab Lab, in partnership with 84 Lumber, which is donating some materials.
Engineering students at Fox Chapel Area High School are currently building a tiny house on a mobile trailer. The house will be outfitted with the latest technological equipment, such as 3-D printers, laser engravers, vinyl cutters andcomputers.
The prefabricated house comes with framing, walls and a roof, and the students willdo everything else, including siding and electrical wiring. While outfitting the Fab Lab, the students will have to think of unique solutions for a confined space, such as dual usesfor many items.
The house is expected to be completed later this month, when it will tour schools in the Fox Chapel Area district. By next year, the district hopes to take the house on the roadto other local schools.
Staff writer Janice Crompton contributed. Anne Cloonan, freelance writer: suburbanliving@post-gazette.