Menu

NSF-funded project seeks to engage Middle School girls in robotics learning to boost interest in computer science and STEM skills

September 17, 2018

MGHPCC and Holyoke Codes will partner with researchers from UMass Amherst and Elms College.
Read this story via UMass News
AMHERST, Mass. – Combining robotics and simulations of natural disasters, a new project led by University of Massachusetts College of Education professor Florence Sullivan and Elms College associate professor of computer science Beryl Hoffman is aimed at spurring interest in computer science among middle school girls in Holyoke.
Funded with $570,697 from the National Science Foundation, Girls Involved in Robotics Learning Simulations (GIRLS) will serve students who attend Girls Inc. of Holyoke and the Boys and Girls Club of Holyoke during vacations and summer camps, says Sullivan.
Participating girls will work with co-robots—machines that help humans accomplish tasks­—in a simulated relief response to a natural disaster, a scenario that Sullivan expects will resonate with girls whose families were affected by last year’s Hurricane Maria that devastated Puerto Rico.
“Many middle school students in Holyoke are part of the Puerto Rican diaspora and still have family and connections to the island,” she says. “We know that girls are socialized to be interested in helping professions. By focusing on innovations that help people we can potentially attract more girls into computer science and robotics.”
Ultimately, the researchers hope to gain a deeper insight into the role of immersive simulations in encouraging girls’ interest and learning in co-robotics.
As the girls work with wheeled robots and flying drones, they will also explore the social, economic, ethical and legal implications of robotic technology, Sullivan says. “We want the girls to understand how these can be used by first responders, but also to understand the context for their use. Drones are an important tool for assessing disaster scenes and distributing first aid supplies.”
But technology can be manipulated for other uses, adds Sullivan, noting the increasing use of weaponized drones by the U.S. and other countries. “We believe it’s important for students to wrestle with the ethical considerations surrounding technology and to have a curriculum that’s balanced.”
In the first year of the grant, the pilot program and curriculum will be developed by members of the GIRLS project team, Andrew Pasquale and Lissie Fein of Holyoke Codes, a community partnership that provides opportunities for kids to be involved in coding, robotics and technology. Hoffman, will develop the assessment tools for Project GIRLS. The project team also includes Ricardo Poza, an education doctoral student who last year piloted some of the Project GIRLS ideas at a high school near Boston.
Between 40-60 girls will begin taking part in the program in winter or spring of 2020, followed by a summer program, which Sullivan expects will run for two years. Boys will be included in the second year of the program to allow the researchers to assess how their presence and participation impacts the experience of the girls.
As the program grows and evolves, says Sullivan, “We want to develop a curriculum that can be widely distributed. Our results will be published and also shared through a project website.”

Related

Holyoke Codes: Code Week 2018 MGHPCC News
Holyoke Codes: Molecular Biophysics Through Computing MGHPCC News
Grant from Peoples Bank Provides Unique Summer Camp[ Experience MGHPCC News

Next Post:

Research projects

Foldit
Dusty With a Chance of Star Formation
Checking the Medicine Cabinet to Interrupt COVID-19 at the Molecular Level
Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold But Still, Is It Just Right?​
Smashing Discoveries​
Microbiome Pattern Hunting
Modeling the Air we Breathe
Exploring Phytoplankton Diversity
The Computer Will See You Now
Computing the Toll of Trapped Diamondback Terrapins
Edging Towards a Greener Future
Physics-driven Drug Discovery
Modeling Plasma-Surface Interactions
Sensing Subduction Zones
Neural Networks & Earthquakes
Small Stars, Smaller Planets, Big Computing
Data Visualization using Climate Reanalyzer
Getting to Grips with Glassy Materials
Modeling Molecular Engines
Forest Mapping: When the Budworms come to Dinner
Exploring Thermoelectric Behavior at the Nanoscale
The Trickiness of Talking to Computers
A Genomic Take on Geobiology
From Grass to Gas
Teaching Computers to Identify Odors
From Games to Brains
The Trouble with Turbulence
A New Twist
A Little Bit of This... A Little Bit of That..
Looking Like an Alien!
Locking Up Computing
Modeling Supernovae
Sound Solution
Lessons in a Virtual Test Tube​
Crack Computing
Automated Real-time Medical Imaging Analysis
Towards a Smarter Greener Grid
Heading Off Head Blight
Organic Light-Harvesting Antennae
Art and AI
Excited by Photons
Tapping into an Ocean of Data
Computing Global Change
Star Power
Engineering the Human Microbiome
Computing Social Capital
Computers Diagnosing Disease
All Research Projects

Collaborative projects

ALL Collaborative PROJECTS

Outreach & Education Projects

See ALL Scholarships
100 Bigelow Street, Holyoke, MA 01040