COSAM News Articles 2023 October Southern Educational Robotics Conference 2023: Fostering Innovation and Collaboration in STEM Education

Southern Educational Robotics Conference 2023: Fostering Innovation and Collaboration in STEM Education

Published: 10/17/2023

By: Kristen Jackson

While Auburn University students were enjoying fall break, more than 120 robotics educators and area professionals from across the southeast were in the classroom for a transformative event focused on advancing STEM education through robotics.

The Southern Educational Robotics Conference (SERC) was held at the Auburn University Academic Classroom and Laboratory Complex (ACLC) on Friday, October 13 with a lineup of distinguished speakers, hands-on workshops and networking opportunities. The annual conference inspires and empowers educators to integrate robotics into their curriculum, enhancing learning experiences for students. The conference is hosted by the Southeastern Center of Robotics Education (SCORE), an outreach unit within College of Sciences and Mathematics.

Technology in Motion, a free initiative that travels to Alabama schools, led a session to educate teachers on robotics called VEXploring Robotics for Beginners. The session put the teachers in their students’ shoes. Teachers built a robot step-by-step using a VEX Go kit. This simple, hands-on experience empowered educators to learn they can do this – build a robot, make it run and share this knowledge with their students and other teachers at their school. Educators were also exposed to how they can adapt robotics to their everyday curriculum.

Dr. Stephen Walker from Technology in Motion spoke about adapting robotics to your curriculum. “Time in the classroom is always an issue. Through robotics we can integrate computer science into other areas of learning such as math or language arts.”

His counterpart, Timothy Johnson, followed up with how a child can read a story about the life cycle of a butterfly and then dress up a robot as a butterfly and send them on a journey integrating language arts, science and robotics in one lesson. In addition, children utilize math skills such as counting, adding and fractions to build their robots and follow multistep directions when thinking through the coding process.

In another hands-on session, educators built a robot out of everyday materials utilizing a Sphero robot as the motor. The challenge was for the robot to carry the maximum amount of weight possible in an underwater environment. Teachers shared that their students love having creative freedom in challenges like this. It keeps their minds engaged, builds collaboration skills and forces them to think outside the box.

Networking was also a key takeaway from SERC 2023. Not only were teachers able to hear real-world stories of putting a robotics program in place, but they were also able to collaborate with peers through challenges such as the Sphero robot challenge.

SERC is an annual conference dedicated to promoting robotics as a powerful tool for enhancing STEM education in grades K-12. Since its inception in 2019, SERC has been at the forefront for innovation and excellence in teaching and learning through robotics.

Teachers collaborate to build an underwater robot using a Sphero Bolt to carry a maximum weight.

SERC participants experiment with coding by using a Finch 2.0 Robot to draw shapes.

Educators new to robotics take part in a VEXploring workshop for beginners in which they gain comfort in robotics through building, coding and driving a robot.