Our group participates in the NSF-funded Research Experiences for High School Teachers program organized by the Center for Biorenewables Chemicals at ISU. As a part of this engagement, we host school teachers in the summer. The objective is to provide an exposure to the research activities being pursued in the group, and train them to integrate parts of it in their classroom teaching.
Glen Unwin, the Industrial Technology teacher from East Buchanan Community School, spent seven weeks at Iowa State University participating in the RET summer program. Glen was in a mechanical engineering lab setting under the direction of Dr. Bhattacharya. Glen utilized his lab experience to gain further knowledge with a software program labeled C++. This software is used to program an Arduino micro-controller, which has wide applications in electronics, automation and robotics.
Glen will integrate this knowledge of C++ into the middle school and high school classes. The classes that will incorporate C++ are two eighth grade classes, one freshman level class and one electronics high school class. Middle school students will already have had extensive experience with Vex Robots and Robot C. The high school classes will focus on the use of the micro-controller with electronics. The Arduino micro-controller is an open-sourced programming platform. The extensive amount of free programming used with the Arduino platform and
robotics presents a unique experience to extend this learning within the industrial technology curriculum. This makes the Arduino an excellent multidimensional educational tool. There are vast free and openly accessible software programs in existence which can be used to further expose high school students to various programming environments and “real world” applications in electronics.
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