Photo courtesy of Allie Hulcher.
Members of the VHHS and PMS Robotics Team help Vestavia Girl Scouts program robots.
The Vestavia Hills High School and Pizitz Middle School Robotics teams led Vestavia Girl Scouts at a recent Girl Scouts robotics group troop meeting at Pizitz Middle School.
High school robotics team members, led by High School Robotics Team Coach Pam Hickman, introduced 36 Junior, Cadette, and Senior Girl Scouts to programming and operating Sphero SPRK robots using an app downloaded to their phones. After learning some basics of coding, the Girl Scouts were challenged to work in small groups of three to five people to program the robots to navigate several mazes taped onto the floor of the lunchroom. The room was quickly buzzing with robots and conversation as the teams got busy.
Concurrently, in the Pizitz Media Lab, Pizitz Middle School Robotics Team coaches Diane McAliley and Kim Jaggard recorded video and snapped pictures documenting their robotics team members as they led 16 Daisy and Brownie Girl Scouts through four well-prepared stations that introduced them to biomimicry, the engineering process,using color coding with the Ozobot robot, cause/effect, critical thinking, and programming. The evening wrapped up with a competition demonstration in the Pizitz Robotics Lab.
The robotics team took a step toward fulfilling its entry in the VEX IQ Challenge Girl Powered Online Challenge Sponsored by Google, an initiative to redefine the face of STEM by creating a more inclusive environment for all students in the robotics community. And the participating Girl Scouts earned robotics badges. Robotics coaches McAliley and Jaggard will use the video and photos they captured to create the video required as part of the Girl Powered Challenge entry. The winner will receive automatic team qualification for this season’s VEX Robotics World Championship.
According to Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., research shows that girls are keenly interested in STEM and excel at it, yet for a variety of reasons, often don’t pursue STEM. Events like this, which combine fun, hands-on learning, peer-to-peer teaching, and collaboration,provide accessible pathways to STEM experiences.
The robotics badges are among 42 new Girl Scout badges focusing on STEM and the outdoors, designed with age-appropriate, hands-on activities. In addition to robotics,other STEM badges focus on engineering, cyber security, space science, coding, and citizen science.
Girls in kindergarten through twelfth grade can join Girl Scouts at any time. For information about joining Vestavia Girls Scouts, visit girlscoutsnca.org or call 800-734-4541.
Submitted by Allie Hulcher.
