Meet the newest MiRo ambassador - Discovery STEM!
With a background in teaching biology at Silverdale secondary school and Biomedical Science research at The University of Sheffield; Dr Melissa Butt is the Director of Discovery STEM Education, a not for profit organisation based at Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield, UK. She is also the Chair of World Educational Robotics in the UK and a Co-founder of Invent Future Global. Here, Melissa speaks about making robotics and programming accessible to schools, teachers and pupils, why she chose to collaborate with MiRo and her thoughts on the future of robotics in education.
What projects and activities do you do with children?
The Discovery STEM Education teaching team develop and deliver robotics and invention education programmes to children aged between 7 and 18. We also organise international Robotics and Invention events in the UK, overseas and online.
How do you work with schools and teachers?
We have a number of different platforms for engaging with schools and teachers. The Discovery STEM Education teaching team have been providing after school STEM programmes and bespoke enrichment days for schools in Sheffield, Bradford, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham over the past 6 years.
Discovery STEM curriculum development coordinator Emily (left) training our robotics teacher Khoulod.
We have trained more than 200 UK schoolteachers from more than 100 schools, helping them to bring robotics into maths, science, computing and technology curricula. We deliver educational robotics seminars to audiences worldwide – our largest educational event of 2019 (the annual World Robotics Society in Shanghai) had an audience of 400 teachers from 63 different countries!
We also lead the way in online delivery of educational robotics and invention talks to teachers via The Global Innovation Field Trip virtual event. Our online engagement strategies continue to evolve, and we foresee that online delivery will be a major avenue for delivery for teachers’ professional development in the field of robotics.
Discovery STEM Education also has an academy based in the A-level Science department at Sheffield College. This is where we work with teachers in the science, maths, healthcare and business departments to introduce practical robotics workshops to their students.
How do you work with MiRo and robotics?
Our curriculum development coordinator (Emily Whaites) is working on an EPSRC impact acceleration project to develop distance learning and classroom MiRoCODE curriculum and resources for teachers. We are currently testing and optimising these resources with children on the Discovery STEM Education MiRo Summer programme. In October 2020, 20 schoolteachers will be trained to teach MiRoCODE to year 5 and 6 pupils using the lesson plans and resources that are currently in development. We will support teachers to deliver these classes to their pupils. The final phase of this preliminary educational robotics project will be a MiRo robotics event at The Diamond Engineering Department (The University of Sheffield) for participating schools.
How do you see MiRo integrating with the work you do in the future?
We are very excited to be bringing MiRo into the classroom to allow bright young minds the opportunity to immerse themselves in robotics at the highest levels. There is no limitation to what students can achieve even at very young ages with the guidance and educational techniques we are developing with this platform. We intend to continue developing a large bank of educational materials and lessons linked to various areas of the National Curriculum at primary and secondary level. MiRoCODE is going to be a very important tool for us in bringing essential coding skills to teachers.
How do you think remote learning will change the future of robotics in education?
Over the past 3 months the Discovery STEM Education classes transferred to a virtual online format in line with COVID-19 requirements. This was a simple transition for us since we have strong links with overseas educational organisations with a common long-term goal of enabling children to join classes and events from all over the world. Remote access was something we had in development well before it became a necessity so the infrastructure around this was already in place.
Many of the international robotics and invention events that we organise are now taking place on a monthly basis online. We plan to continue a number of activities remotely even as face to face events become an option once again. There are techniques to deliver remote learning that are very specific to the field of robotics education that are not akin to delivering traditional subject material learning, we are proud to be leading the way in this field.
How do you think we can make robotics more accessible to pupils from all backgrounds?
In 2013, I researched the use of role models to improve engagement of ethnic minority students. This article was published in the School Science Review Journal. I strongly believe that relevant role models are essential and at Discovery STEM Education we highlight the History of Innovation and scientific contribution throughout the ages and from many cultures and peoples of the world.
Our overseas collaborations again come in to play here and allow pupils to see through their experience with us that scientific development and those that contribute to it are not limited to or by any stereotype.
What can teachers do to encourage their pupils to progress in STEM subjects?
We define our approach to learning with real world problems, providing children with the tools that they need to creatively solve the problem using their existing science, technology, engineering and maths knowledge. This puts the subject into context for young people and encourages engagement. A healthy dose of friendly collaboration and competition where appropriate can also develop confidence in a supportive and pastoral environment.
Why do you think STEM subjects can offer pupils great career prospects and how do you see MiRo contributing to their learning?
STEM subjects enable pupils to acquire the knowledge and skills required for problem solving and innovation, which will be essential for the jobs of the future. Technology is moving fast and schoolteachers are now challenged with training their pupils to solve problems that don’t yet exist using technology that hasn’t yet been invented. Pupils who have been given the opportunity to learn advanced educational AI robotics at school level will be developing similar skills to those that are being taught in universities. Coding MiRo-E helps pupils to use put their maths, science and computing knowledge into context.
The Consequential Robotics team are excited to be working with Melissa and the Discovery STEM team to make robotics, and MiRo, accessible and educational for all, stay tuned for more updates.