STEAM 2023 - 2024

Hello Parents,

Welcome to another exciting school year. Thank You for volunteering. As STEAM is going through changes we need your help and support to provide our Tigers with the best. STEAM Committee will make official announcement on the year ahead details. Stay Tuned!!! Once again Welcome Back and Thank You.

STEAM Volunteers mark their scheduled classes on the calendars below. This helps ensure the availability of resources during the scheduled time. The password will be distributed at the training which takes place at the beginning of the school year each year.   

Bots and Grades

STEAM FAQ

1. When are the classes taught?  Classes are taught during school hours (8:25 - 3:00).  The STEAM classroom leader and the classroom teacher work together to select a time that works best to teach the classes.
2. How much time commitment?  Our goal is that all grades UTK through 5 have 5, one-hour STEAM lessons. If a STEAM volunteer feels their lesson needs to be longer, it must be OK'd with the classroom teacher. It is a good idea to spend some time at home reviewing or practicing the lesson at home with your child so you are familiar with what to expect.  Some lessons require photocopying of the student handouts which can be done at school taking minimal time.
3. Will you train me? YES!  We want you to be successful!  We have a very high rate of volunteers that return each year.  There are training sessions by grade level at the beginning of the year (usually in October) once classroom leaders have signed up.  In addition, if you have any questions during the year you are more than welcome to email us or meet in person.
4. What materials do you use?  (robots, languages, etc...)  We started off with Bee-Bot and Pro-Bot. We have a variety of Bots to explore now - Ozobots, Spheros, Wonderbot - Dash. Grade 4 and Grade 5 use Scratch which is a free visual programing language.  Grade 5 uses Scratch with Arduinos. We welcome all grades to explore all bots. 
5. What grades get these lessons?  The lessons are for all of our students: Preschool to Grade 5.  The lessons build on the students’ previous knowledge and progress in difficulty.
6. How much does it cost?  The STEAM program is fully funded by the FFC.  All of our instructors are parent volunteers.  The program would not exist without our volunteers like you!
7.  Do the teachers teach it?  The classroom teacher remains in the classroom or Makerspace and can help with the lesson and provide classroom management suggestions.  The STEAM leader is the “teacher” during the STEAM lessons.
8.  Does it require a CS degree?  You do not need a CS degree to volunteer to teach STEAM to our students. All of the lessons are provided and many parents without a CS degree have been successful leaders.  STEAM classroom helpers are wonderful even if they don’t have a computer science background.  
9.  What if I can’t commit to teaching all the lessons?  Sign up!  Often a classroom has more than 1 parent who is interested in teaching lessons.  The lessons can be divided among the interested parents so each leader only teaches a few lessons during the year.  
10.  How do I get these lessons for my kid?  If your child is a student at Dingeman, they will get these lessons in their classroom.
11. Why should I volunteer?  The STEAM program will not happen without a volunteer from every classroom.  It is amazing to see how much progress your child and their classmates make in learning about programing during the lessons.  You want your child to start getting the skills they need to be successful in the future!  
12. What are the next steps?
1. Sign up to volunteer on www.dingeman.net under “Click to Volunteer.”  If the classroom leader position is already filled, email steam@dingeman.net and tell us your name, your child’s name and teacher.
2. Get you volunteer clearance packet turned into the school office ASAP.  
3. Wait to receive an email indicating your grade level training meeting which will be in the morning before school late September or early October.  
4. Meet with your classroom teacher to schedule the lessons.
5. Reserve the bots you will be using in the lessons with the appropriate calendar link(s) above. 
6. Check if your teacher has already reserved the Makerspace room for the dates and times of your lessons. If the room is taken already, you can use one of the green wagons to take the bots to the classroom.

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The STEAM program aims to bring in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math enrichment to all students at Dingeman. 2014-15 was our pilot year, and it was a huge success thanks to the amazing participation and commitment from our parent volunteers. As STEAM leaders, our goals are to not only teach students about early technology concepts, but also to get ALL students interested in science and technology, and feeling like it is something they are capable of doing today and in their future.

For more information, contact the STEAM Committee Co-Chairs: Karthika Ramesh

STEAM Training

Lessons Outline

Pre-K/UTK

The goal of the Pre-K/UTK lessons is to introduce the students to the Bee-Bots, one of its simplest commands, and to have fun with technology.

1. Bee-Bot Introduction
2. Reach patterns on the Bee-Bot mat
3. Knockdown
4. Bee-Bot Racing

Kindergarten

Students are introduced to the basics of programming using the directional commands on the Bee-Bot . The lessons are aimed at developing problem solving skills and a sense of logic. The assignments are well integrated into the classroom topics of sequencing, ordinality, identification of shapes/patterns, etc.

Grade 1

The students work with both Bee-Bots and Pro-Bots this year. The Bee-Bot is used in programming assignments that utilize all its capabilities, while connecting to topics/activities in the classroom such as navigating the map of an area, addition, place values, shapes/patterns, etc. The students transition to introductory lessons on the Pro-Bot after five lessons with the Bee-Bot. 

Grade 2

The students learn about sequential programming and repeat loops via the Pro-Bot. The first couple of lessons reinforce the use of linear measurements and directional commands. Next, the students decode compass directions and map them to directional commands on the Pro-Bot. A simple intro to optimization follows, with the Pro-Bot being directed to various stores to minimize the total cost. Next, students identify repeating patterns in given figures and learn to create them using repeat loops. We wind up the year with a debugging lesson, that allows the students to find errors and fix broken code.

Grade 3

The students continue to build up on their knowledge from the previous years. After a quick review of sequential programming and repeat loops, the students are introduced to the principles of modular programming and simple optimization. The programming assignments are designed to be practical applications of the Math concepts learned in the classroom, including area/perimeter, coordinate geometry, properties of quadrilaterals, etc. Next, the concept of reactive programming is introduced via a relay race that uses touch sensors on the Pro-Bot. The final assignment for the year focuses on honing the students’ debugging and editing skills. 

Grade 4

The focus is on working with angular measurements and reinforcing the concepts of geometry from the classroom. The students start off with a review of programming concepts from the previous years, and work on problems involving area/perimeter. The next four lessons involve angular measurements using the Pro-Bot, and creating various types of figures using repeat loops & procedures. The students identify the properties of regular polygons, and develop a generalized algorithm to draw regular polygons. Next, the concept of reactive programming learned in the previous year is reinforced with sensor related projects. Lastly, students work on their debugging and editing skills, identifying and fixing broken code, and modifying code to achieve new functionality.

Grade 5