As technological literacy becomes a more prominent feature in schools, students have the chance to realize interests in subjects such as programming, robotics and artificial intelligence.
“Technology education begins as early as kindergarten,” said Sasha Zuflacht, assistant head and director of community relations at the Learning Project Elementary School.
Starting in kindergarten, students are each given an iPad to help them understand how to use technology responsibly at an early age.
“There are a lot of useful literacy and math programs,” said Zuflacht, noting that learning applications like IXL for mathematics and Lexia for reading help reinforce concepts being taught in the classroom.
She added that students in kindergarten through second grade also use their iPads to work on ScratchJr, an introductory programming language that uses interactive visuals to teach basic coding concepts and critical thinking.
“I think they get really excited about it,” said Zuflacht. “It’s really cool to see kids use technology for educational purposes.”
By the time students move up to fifth grade and sixth grade, they have the technological foundation for activities such as submitting homework online, emailing teachers and using the internet to access information.
Zuflacht said the Learning Project also has an in-house curriculum for the ethical use of technology that has been taught for over a decade. “It really starts at understanding internet safety,” she said. The school also informs students about social media, viruses, cyberbullying, and the fact that not everything on the internet is true. The Learning Project teaches technology as one of seven “special subjects,” which meet once a week for all students from kindergarten to sixth grade. “We had not had a formal technology course until last year,” said Zuflacht, noting that the Learning Project strives to update its curriculum and digital literacy programs to keep up with the times.
“Technology will be a part of their lives moving forward,” Zuflacht said, stressing the importance of education on the subject.
At the Newman School, students are given more choice as to how they pursue technological interests in the classroom and through after school activities.
Members of the 250-person student body, ranging from seventh grade to twelfth grade, have the option to take computer science courses and participate in extracurriculars including the robotics club, the computer science club and the NASA club.
The school’s robotics team, the “Clockwork Cardinals,” consists of 13 students who collaborate on projects and compete against teams at neighboring schools. “About half of the club members are interested in programming while the other half enjoy the design, engineering and building aspects,” said Simon Huynh, the Newman School’s mathematics teacher and robotics club coach.
He noted that this year’s robotics challenge is to build and program a robot that can autonomously differentiate between different colored objects while navigating obstacles as it travels.
“This will require the programmers in the team to research pattern recognition and some artificial intelligence and apply what they learn to preprogram our robot,” said Huynh. “Some members in the team find these problems very interesting and intriguing.” Huynh added that he’s looking into a field trip to the Museum of Science so students can learn about their robotic dog powered by artificial intelligence.
