The students at P.S./I.S. 113 in Glendale will now have the chance to play, and more importantly learn, with some very special robots.
Angela Monogioudis, a fifth grade teacher at the school, entered a nation-wide contest with Wonder Workshop — the company that created the award-winning Dash and Dot robots that teach kids 6 years and older how to code.
P.S./I.S. 113 was only one of five schools across the United States to win the contest and was selected to receive five Dash and Dot robots, and five Kindles to help advance the school’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs.
“I feel extremely excited and privileged that I was chosen,” Monogioudis said. “I never really win anything.”
One of the main reasons that P.S./I.S. 113 won the contest is because Monogioudis is dedicated to bringing technology to her students, and is in the process of creating a computer science club at the school that will teach her students the importance of technology and how learning to create technology and how to code is an essential skill to learn.
“I’ve been going to workshops on computer science and saw the impact computer science has on kids’ lives, not just now, but for the future,” she said. “Our students work well with technology, and I am planning on starting a computer science club and wanted to incorporate robots.”
Wonder Workshop is also working with Code.org to bring in a representative to help institute a fun program that will enable the entire school to participate in Hour of Code — a global movement by Computer Science Education Week and Code.org that introduces children to computer science and programming through a one-hour course.
“I hope that it can positively impact not just their ability to use technology, but enhance their excitement for learning and expanding their abilities to learn,” Monogioudis said. “We are going to start incorporating in computer science club using coding and problem solving skills. I hope to get all grade levels involved.”
The school will also get to join over 8,500 schools worldwide that will participate in Wonder League, Wonder Workshop’s Robotics Competition. The competition is a series of challenges that incorporates real world problems and lets kids design solutions to those problems through programming.
