| Course Number: | EDX 5710 S26 |
| Instructor: | Lee Arrington, M.Ed. |
| Location: | Online |
| Dates and Times: | Feb 13, 2025 - May 08, 2025. Session 1: 2/13/25 (Week 1) – Online Zoom 4:00-5:30pm EST Session 2: 3/6/25 (Week 3) – Online Zoom 4:00-5:30pm EST Session 3: 3/20/25 (Week 5) – Online Zoom 4:00-5:30pm EST Session 4: 4/3/25 (Week 7) – Online Zoom 4:00-5:30pm EST Session 5: 4/17/25 (Week 9) – Online Zoom 4:00-5:30pm EST Final Project Due by Thursday, 5/8/25 |
| Credits: | 3 Graduate Credits |
| Tuition: | $1,680 includes Lego Prime Spike Kit. Registration for this course closes on January 30, 2025 to ensure on-time technology delivery. |
Designed to accommodate educators, this 10-week course meets biweekly for a total of 5 Zoom meetings to help teachers gain experience using Lego Robotics. This course will include learning to code in Block while helping educators create actionable lesson plans for their students. A Free Lego Spike Prime Robotics Kit is included in the course and will be mailed to teachers before their first class. Educators will be supported in this emergent field of engineering education with readings and videos that will provide background and context to engineering education using online tutorials, supplemental resources, and explicit connections to the NGSS Standards as well as the Science and Engineering Practices. This course will help teachers connect and engage students with hands on learning and provide them with equitable access to technology that they may not have outside of school.
Audience: All educators with an earned Bachelor's Degree
Course Goals: Overarching course goals include an introduction to engineering education with a focus on Lego robotics to help educators feel confident using the Lego Spike Prime kit with their students. This is a Lab based, hands-on course that provides educators with the opportunity to tinker, program, and create actionable lesson plans.
Course Objectives: Course objectives include (1) training teachers to use the Spike Prime kit evidenced by photos or videos of work simulating the student experience. A secondary course objective is (2) to provide teachers with actionable lesson plans that they can use immediately in their classrooms. Finally, a tertiary objective is (3) to support teachers’ learning of Block programming so they are comfortable using Lego robotics in their classrooms.
Required Readings/Texts: Required Readings will be provided.
Is it Engineering or Not?
Whitworth, Brooke & Wheeler, Lindsay. (2017). Is It Engineering or Not?. The Science Teacher. 084. 25. 10.2505/4/tst17_084_05_25.
Tensions in the Productivity in Design Task Tinkering – Fundamental
Quan, Gina & Gupta, Ayush. (2015). Tensions in the Productivity of Design Task Tinkering - Fundamental. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings. 122.
Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning
Committee on a Framework for P-12. (2020). Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning. Washington, DC: American Society for Engineering Education.
Teaching K-6 Elementary Engineering with Robotics
Heffernan, J., & Sullivan, F. (2021). Teaching K-6 Elementary Engineering with Robotics. International Journal of Engineering Education, 37(6), 1655-1673
Lee Arrington holds a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry with a Master of Education from MCLA. He is a middle school science teacher that chairs the Science Department and Technology Committee with a passion for STEAM education. Lee leads his school’s robotics after school program in coordination with the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century grant, and has helped his school become one of only 24 schools in the world to be named a Lego Build the Change Showcase school in the 2024-2025 school year. For over 4 years he has specialized in using Lego Robotics (the Spike Prime kit) with students to expand access to the Bennington community he serves. Lee has extended his work to include professional development locally within his public school district while teaching graduate classes online to educators throughout Vermont. Building off the engineering education certificate program at Tufts University, Lee seeks to bring engineering to all students in every content setting. He actively supports equitable access to 21st century technology by providing teachers with the support they need to feel confident teaching robotics and engineering in their classrooms.