CD 143 Teaching Robotics in an Urban School

Offered Spring 2012

Course Description
This service learning course provides a unique experience for Tufts students to spend a week working in a Magnet school in Harlem, NYC teaching robotics to children in Pre-K to second grade and leading a special evening for the children’s families. Students will learn about teaching in an urban setting as well as about ways to integrate new technologies, such as robotics, into early childhood classrooms. All expenses will be paid.
The trip will happen during Spring break --March, 19th - March 23rd. During that week, students will spend on average 7 hours every day (total of 35 hours) working in a classroom. Along with the classroom teachers, they will be in charge of teaching and assessing a robotics unit. They will also lead an evening robotics open house for families and community members.
Prior to that week, students will have three meetings of two hours each. Meetings will happen on Tuesday evenings 7:30-9:30pm (Jan 24th, Feb 14th, and March 6th). The goal of these meetings is to introduce students to the robotics technology, to have them experience the curriculum they will be teaching, and to discuss issues that are important to consider when teaching in an urban school. Issues regarding ethical conduct will also be discussed.
A meeting for debriefing the experience will happen on April 3rd. As a final product, student teams working in the same classroom will write a paper describing and documenting their learning experience as well as make a short video. Papers and videos will be due the last day of the semester. There may be extra-credit for students who want to take on a bigger documentation project.