COSAM News Articles 2022 October SCORE hosts 2022 Southern Educational Robotics Conference, engages educators across the nation with robotics industry speakers and innovative STEM workshops

SCORE hosts 2022 Southern Educational Robotics Conference, engages educators across the nation with robotics industry speakers and innovative STEM workshops

Published: 10/10/2022

By: Leslie Leak

“Every time you interact with and engage students through STEM in your classroom, it has a far-reaching impact and can influence your students’ future,” stated Allen Landers, professor and chair of COSAM’s Department of Physics, as he welcomed educators and set the inspirational tone for a robotics conference like no other.

On October 6 and 7, K-12 teachers, media specialists and administrators participated in STEM-centered robotics presentations and workshops at the 2022 Southern Educational Robotics Conference (SERC) held in Auburn University’s innovative Academic Classroom and Laboratory Complex.

Historically, SERC has been serving educators and administrators across the Southeast with four conferences since 2019. Initially founded as a VEX Robotics Conference, SERC became the first and only multi-platform educational robotics conference in the country in 2020 expanding beyond a single platform and allowing teachers from all backgrounds to come together around the shared evolution of educational robotics.

Hosted by the Southeastern Center of Robotics Education (SCORE), an outreach unit in Auburn’s College of Sciences and Mathematics, or COSAM, and in collaboration with Alabama Technology in Motion, SERC provided a unique, two-day agenda structured with breakout sessions, hands-on workshops and an exhibitor showcase spanning a wide variety of topics and trends in the robotics industry.

Ryan Hittie, Innovation and Operational Technology Specialist with Brasfield & Gorrie, kicked off the event as keynote speaker, sharing innovation strategies of teaching students how to think, how to fail, and how to enable students to utilize technology. Hittie, a 2012 Auburn University graduate, explained how his childhood enjoyment of playing with Legos led to an educational path in mechanical engineering, which presented career opportunities where he is making an impact in construction industry innovation.

In his role at Brasfield & Gorrie, Hittie experiences firsthand the impact robotics has made on automation in the construction industry and stressed the need for a workforce-ready, STEM-skilled generation who can utilize, program and train others on robotics. He closed by giving SERC attendees a paper map of Birmingham’s Cooper Green Mercy Hospital where a QR code scan from a smartphone transformed one’s view to an augmented reality showing the existing hospital alongside a proposed new building complete with traffic flow and construction crane layers—all thanks to robotics.

SERC attendees heard from national speakers at the forefront of advancing robotics in K-12 education. With speakers’ topics ranging from coding for beginners, starting a robotics competition team, hosting tournaments, cross-curricular robotics applications, college/career readiness through robotics, the future of computer science and more, SERC attendees could choose relevant material that suited their interests, skill level and target K-12 audience. Presentations also covered exciting robotics grant opportunities in Alabama.

The array of topics shows that robotics gives teachers at any grade level the platform to teach skills including STEM, computer science and the engineering design process, as well as soft skills like technical literacy, collaboration and problem-solving.

Attendees experienced a glimpse into the classroom application of robotics through interactive workshops and exhibit demos covering coding with VEX robotics, Turing Tumble marble-powered mechanical computers, underwater ROV robots, humanoid robots, Makey-Makey, Beebots, Blue Bots and more. Robert Mayben, an instructional technology specialist with Alabama Technology in Motion facilitated drone soccer games between sessions to demonstrate the integration of STEM with Esports.

The event concluded with the naming of Amber Parsons from Bankhead Middle School as the recipient of the 2022 Terry Marbut Excellence in Robotics Teaching Award. Marbut (1961-2020) was one of the first to bring VEX Robotics to Alabama at Jacksonville State University and spent his career using robotics to reach students and promote STEM education. The award is given to an educator who mirrors Marbut’s passion for the use of educational robotics in their classroom.

Parsons started a robotics team at her school in Cordova over ten years ago. It was the first robotics team in her county, and her collaborative efforts of engaging community partners and additional schools led to the establishment of a STEM facility in her school system. One community parent noted that through her passion for STEM education, Parsons is an advocate for students who would otherwise be overlooked.

SCORE would like to thank the following sponsors, exhibitors and collaborators for their participation in making this year’s in-person SERC event a success: VEX Robotics, Firia Labs, PowerUp EDU, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Upper Story, KinderLab Robotics, Learning Labs, Inc., Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (REC) and Alabama Technology in Motion.

For more information on SERC or additional robotics events available through SCORE, contact SCORE Assistant Director Jennifer Spencer at jennifer.spencer@auburn.edu.

SERC participants attended robotics workshops and presentations in the innovative ACLC building on Auburn’s campus.

COSAM Outreach Director Mary Lou Ewald welcomes educators to the 2022 SERC event.

Keynote speaker Ryan Hittie addresses educators at the 2022 SERC opening session.

SERC platinum sponsor VEX Robotics displays educational robotics kits during SERC’s exhibitor showcase.

SERC attendees visit numerous displays at SERC’s exhibitor showcase.

SERC platinum sponsor Firia Labs displays robots at SERC’s exhibitor showcase.

Robert Mayben, an instructional technology specialist with Alabama Technology in Motion, facilitates a drone soccer game showing the integration of STEM with Esports.

Amber Parsons of Bankhead Middle School was named the recipient of the 2022 Terry Marbut Excellence in Robotics Teaching Award. Parsons was honored at her school on October 6 in a surprise ceremony.