Nurturing Young Minds Through Robotics

David Owen: 00:00:00

Got a young student with a creative, analytical mind. How to nurture those young minds is our topic today on the Inside Scoop. Hello and welcome back to the Inside Scoop. I'm David Owen.

Give us a like and subscribe if you hear something helpful in this episode.

As parents, you likely can see characteristics in your child from a very early age that give you a peek into the kind of mind growing inside that head. Some kids have a natural curiosity of how things work.

Some may even do things like take apart their grandmother's kitchen clock and not be able to put it back together. That kid shall remain nameless.

But finding ways to keep them busy with the things that truly generate curiosity in their minds, nurturing that curious, analytical mind, that's not always such an easy thing to do. So today I'm joined by two. Two teachers from Tritt elementary to teach us some ways to do that. Courtney, help me with your last name.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:01:05

Pasquale.

David Owen: 00:01:06

Pasquale. Please forgive me for that. And Joey Giunta. Okay. All right. Good to have you guys here.

I want to make sure your names are right, because that's important. So if you would kind of fill in the blanks as to what it is that you two do at Tritt. You. You both kind of teach similar but not the same things.

Courtney, let's start with you.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:01:29

Sure. I'm the technology lab teacher at Tritt, and I teach K through 5. A variety of disciplines are incorporated into what we do in my space.

David Owen: 00:01:40

Okay. What about you, Joey?

Joey Giunta: 00:01:42

I'm the K5 science lab teacher. So we are both in the specials rotation along with PE Art and music.

David Owen: 00:01:49

Okay. All right. So, Courtney, let's start with you, since it seems like kindergarten came out very easily for you.

When parents hear words like technology or coding or labs, we don't normally think of the kindergarten years. Right. So it kind of is a little intimidating. It sounds like we're pushing kids to do things, but that's not really what's going on.

Tell us a little bit about what your technology learning looks like in the classroom for that age group.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:02:24

Sure. And it's a fair question. It's not a passive experience. In MySpace, we start off the year trying to be great digital citizens.

And what does that look like, knowing how to use a device? We start out with a desktop computer. Well, then you have to know how to use a mouse.

And so all those basic skills have to be taught, but it's always embedded with things that are happening in the classroom. And then it moves into being a problem solver, like a little engineer.

That's trying to ask a question, explore different ideas, build something, a model, and then test it just like a real engineer. So kindergarten does get to do that. And then we broaden it a little bit by trying to solve local problems.

Like, right now, that absentee list at Tritt is getting awfully long. Can kindergartners teach the rest of Tritt to stay healthy? And then it finishes up, we broaden it even further.

David Owen: 00:03:18

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Back it up a minute. Hearing you, the kindergartner, what are you saying about. Help me understand this. I'm a little slow, I admit it.

What are they doing with the technology that relates to absenteeism? Hit that button for me.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:03:36

Well, they're learning about different healthy habits. And then they think what healthy habit would be the most important to teach Tritt? And then they build a poster.

Not coding, but still technology driven to put around Tritt to teach the other Tritt tigers how to stay healthy.

David Owen: 00:03:55

Okay, so they're using technology, computers to design posters. So you are developing at this tender age of kindergarteners to think through what information needs to go on a poster.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:04:11

What the visual needs to be.

David Owen: 00:04:14

Kindergarten's not what it used to be. I mean, my mind goes back to blocks and having a nap.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:04:20

Oh, and they have to make a plan.

David Owen: 00:04:21

Yeah.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:04:22

Oh, I did that too.

David Owen: 00:04:23

Okay.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:04:24

My kindergarten did not look like this for sure.

David Owen: 00:04:27

All right, well, let me. And that sounds like a whole podcast opportunity right there. But Joey, let me come back. Let me move into your world a little bit. Now. You also.

You guys are teaching more or less in parallel to some extent. Are you also from the kindergarten age up teaching science? Is that.

Joey Giunta: 00:04:47

Yeah, absolutely. We have some fantastic science standards in the county, and it's looking for opportunities to make those as hands on as possible.

In my lab right now, my substitute is playing with worms. We're doing living and non living things in the science lab right now with kindergarten. So, you know, that's very different from this.

But they'll work more with robotics as they get a little bit older and come to construction kits.

David Owen: 00:05:16

So when they come to your science lab and they're in kindergarten, they're not immediately jumping into robotics. Right? I mean, you were talking about coding at such an early age. Why are we hitting. This is a broad question. Why are we handing them this?

What seems to a lot of us to be huge tasks at such an early age? Can one of you explain a little more? Maybe you can, Courtney, about the mind nurturing behind assigning that task.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:05:53

Coding is not just a tech skill. It's a thinking skill and being able to break down a harder challenge and just like mandible pieces.

So for a kindergarten, that's just a list of steps, a sequence, spatial sense.

And then when you get maybe up to second grade, you're developing a game in which you have characters sending messages to each other to enact actions. And yeah, so it's a lot, but it's just developing those sequential skills and developing that sense of computational thinking is the big term.

And if you understand that, then you. Your technology is your tool and you can harness that tool.

David Owen: 00:06:34

Yeah. Okay, so that, to me, that. That's where the piece fits in. Right.

Is robotics essentially giving you a task to do that really and truly, we don't want to tell the kids this is causing them to think in new ways that otherwise, you know, it might be hit or miss. For example, like, I presume they work in groups. Joey, tell us a little bit about what the robotics, how robotics fits into this grand approach.

And what does that look like in your lab?

Joey Giunta: 00:07:12

The most valuable thing they're getting from working with robotics, but in everything else we're doing, the robot piece for me is something they'll do in a quarter out of four. They probably use them more often if they could. But it's using a design process to solve some sort of real world challenge.

David Owen: 00:07:38

Okay.

Joey Giunta: 00:07:39

And that can start as early in kindergarten in my space, and obviously it does with Courtney's too. But it's using that design thinking, breaking down a problem, looking for possible solutions, creating a model.

But in doing that, they are not working by themselves. You mentioned that they're probably in groups and they are working in small groups.

They learn to collaborate, they learn to communicate with each other. That's the hardest piece for us. Probably the most intimidating thing is the technology. The kids pick that up pretty quickly.

I'm learning from them as often as I'm teaching them anything. With the tech, it's managing those soft skills or transferable skills.

David Owen: 00:08:24

Yeah, that's exactly what was popping into my head. Because again, I'm dealing with the kindergartner in my head.

And the thing that I see the most in kids that age, students that age are having to learn how to share. Right. How to set their own desires and wants aside for the good of the group. That's no small soft skill.

A lot of adults are still wrestling with that.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:08:57

Yes, yes, they are.

David Owen: 00:08:59

And also tell me if this is true. Accepting the ability to fail and rebound from that like a lesson in resilience, how big of a role Is robotics.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:09:12

In that a big role? We think we tell them to fail faster, to test that idea faster and see if it's going to work or not.

David Owen: 00:09:20

Yeah.

Joey Giunta: 00:09:20

Your ideas aren't precious. Like, get them out there, Try it.

David Owen: 00:09:24

Yeah.

Joey Giunta: 00:09:24

Don't be afraid it's not going to work.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:09:25

And quickly test it so that you can the big words iterate or make an improvement to what your thought process was that was going to fix the problem.

David Owen: 00:09:33

Yeah. So the faster you fail, the faster you can get to success. That's pretty cool.

So it's not just technical stuff, it's the, the things that go into being able to pursue things that are unknown, fail, recover, and eventually succeed. Fair.

Joey Giunta: 00:09:54

Yes. Recovery is a good word for that.

David Owen: 00:09:56

So by fifth grade, students can choose to go further. Right. With robotics in particular, and we're talking about classes, but there are also extracurricular clubs, right?

Joey Giunta: 00:10:11

Yes.

David Owen: 00:10:11

Tell us a little bit about that, Joey, if that's. That's your ballpark, right?

Joey Giunta: 00:10:15

It is, yeah. It's both of ours. Okay.

We, we have an opportunity for fifth grade students to take the robots that they've been learning the coding skills and combine those for for local competitions.

David Owen: 00:10:33

Okay.

Joey Giunta: 00:10:34

So a small group of students, they have to apply, can compete against other schools. So for different tasks. It's usually moving this thing from over here to over there as we're using real robots for.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:10:49

But this competition is not about us against them. It's actually collaborating with another team that you're just meeting and coming up with a quick plan on how to use strategy to solve the problem.

David Owen: 00:11:01

Students they don't know already.

Joey Giunta: 00:11:03

Correct.

David Owen: 00:11:04

Okay. Wow. That's an immediate challenge.

Joey Giunta: 00:11:07

So they're really getting awarded for being the best collaborators with the tools that they brought to the table.

David Owen: 00:11:14

And the competitions are not like Battle of the Robots where they've got no, no skill saws attached to them.

Joey Giunta: 00:11:20

It's the same people, but at this level they're collaborating.

David Owen: 00:11:24

It's a little safer collaboration. So you guys are both at trit, which I presume is probably a pretty well supported school. Right.

And this stuff that you brought in, these look like really cool tools, but I know they're not cheap. We may have a parent or maybe even a teacher in another school who's saying to themselves, yeah, but that, that only happens at a school like Tritt.

We can't afford to do stuff like that. What would you say to somebody in another school who really kind of has a heart to teach students this way?

But they're like, that's a lot of Money we can't get there from here. What would you say to them?

Joey Giunta: 00:12:12

Well, you're right. We do have a wonderful PTA and foundation at our school.

But all of the resources that we're looking at here on the table are materials that we were able to get through the Cobb county school district. Our STEM department here is fantastic. You know, these are related to grants that they've provided us.

And anyone in the county can start building the program that we've done.

David Owen: 00:12:37

Okay.

Joey Giunta: 00:12:38

Over eight or ten years, I guess we've been doing robots now.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:12:41

The opportunities are there.

Joey Giunta: 00:12:42

It starts small, gets big.

David Owen: 00:12:43

So any teacher can apply for these grants.

Joey Giunta: 00:12:48

Yeah. I think they would work with their administration to reach out to the STEM department with Cobb County.

David Owen: 00:12:54

Okay.

Joey Giunta: 00:12:54

And.

David Owen: 00:12:55

Just gotta ask.

Joey Giunta: 00:12:56

Just gotta ask. We've asked for stuff and we've been able to get it over time.

David Owen: 00:13:00

Okay.

Joey Giunta: 00:13:01

It wasn't all at once.

David Owen: 00:13:02

No, no, it wasn't.

Joey Giunta: 00:13:03

Not all at once.

David Owen: 00:13:04

Okay. So you have parts that were 10 years ago and then.

Joey Giunta: 00:13:08

Yeah, well, and that's the other thing, too. These are expensive, but they are robust. They are. You know, the. The big one on the table is 10 years old. It was the first thing that we.

We got into was the biggest stuff and we sort of trickled down instead of the other way around. Now they come to this part with everything they've gotten from Courtney ahead of time, and they're little experts.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:13:31

And this year, I was able to get brand new drones to work with girls in my school, and it was provided by the Cobb stem, Steam and innovation department.

David Owen: 00:13:44

So we're starting a drone force here in Cobb county. So.

Joey Giunta: 00:13:48

Delivers pencils.

David Owen: 00:13:49

Okay, so this is a little bit of an aside, but a drone, in a sense, is like a robot.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:13:54

It is a robot.

David Owen: 00:13:55

Give us. Okay, give us a two or three sentence explanation of what you're talking about. Is this drone thing for girls only?

Courtney Pasquale: 00:14:06

Well, all of fifth grade at Tritt had the opportunity to fly a drone. But Cobb county schools has an event called Fly Girls. And so we get to bring a group of girls to an event in March.

But these drones were provided because I used them in my fifth grade class to talk about how drones are used for things like noting coastal erosion off the coast of Georgia and things like that.

David Owen: 00:14:31

And it's specifically aimed at girls because it's an attempt to encourage girls in sciences in general.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:14:40

Yes, it's one of my passions to get more girls involved in technology and computer science.

David Owen: 00:14:44

Very cool. So some parents might not feel like they are qualified to support a technological approach to a child's learning. What would you say to that parent?

Joey Giunta: 00:14:59

I mean, I'd say that's fine, let the kids do it.

I mean, I think for me personally I've said this before, but the students in their experimentation with the tools we provide surprise me with what they're able to do with it. You don't have to know the answer.

Ask meaningful questions to guide them to, you know, a solution to some problem they've identified or that you've identified the problem maybe.

David Owen: 00:15:25

But okay, so middle school and at this point we hear the, you know, the horror movie music come in. A lot of parents in particular shudder at the thought of their child moving up to middle school. It's a tough set of years in there.

Does robotics and coding and all of this help the child enter those years? What long term impact are you seeing from your efforts at the kindergarten, elementary age level?

Courtney Pasquale: 00:16:03

Well, I would say number one with robotics and with technology, whether it's in the classroom or in our spaces, they're developing those skills to be able to apply to different situations. And two, they're also, we're trying to instill a productive struggle in them where they can, like we said, fail faster.

David Owen: 00:16:23

Joey, does that say.

Joey Giunta: 00:16:25

Yeah, I think so. The most important thing they'll take from it is how they were working with others to solve that problem.

There's a certain amount of skill involved in putting these things together that's not, it's the least important skill that we've given them when we're done with a unit on robots.

David Owen: 00:16:45

So this actually throws me back to the question two questions ago and that is maybe the parents, the non tech are all parents. Parents role should not be to guide them in how to put it together, but how to recover from not succeeding. Right. And fail faster as you say.

I mean that's, I don't think we can get away with like a motivational sign for our office walls fail faster. But I do think there's a lot to be said for that and so that's really cool.

Is there anything else that you could add that a parent might like or need to know about how they can nurture their child's mind in this arena?

Joey Giunta: 00:17:29

One of the most important things a parent can provide is the opportunity to get these materials into kids hands. And there's a cost associated with that.

But the other big thing, especially in an after school setting is going to be the time that's probably the most expensive resource is you know, for teachers that, you know, we didn't seek out.

David Owen: 00:17:52

Robotics probably but if you say that it sought you out, that scares me.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:17:58

It is scary.

Joey Giunta: 00:18:01

Putting time into the after school program is probably the hardest thing to do because there's a full slate of K5 classes that we're teaching other after school opportunities, whether it's the Science Olympiad or Courtney Does It, a drone program that the county runs through the STEM department. So it's another podcast having help from parents to come in. And again, they don't have to know the answer.

It's just to help managing the students, working together.

David Owen: 00:18:31

I think that's it's more of an emotional challenge than anything.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:18:34

Well, I'll just add one simple thing, like modeling curiosity as an adult with your child.

David Owen: 00:18:39

Yeah.

Courtney Pasquale: 00:18:41

Asking those pointed questions, well, I wonder how that works. And talking to your child about things like that, I think inspires them.

David Owen: 00:18:48

Okay, well, this is all cool stuff, and I said it when you walked into the room. I'll say it again so the folks can hear.

I really wish that I were a student today because you guys do such cool things and succeed, and from what I can tell, you're able to put things back together after taking them apart. So that's really cool. Thank you both for being here. Thank you so much.

And we will take any resources that you might have available and put them in the show notes and description of this podcast so that you as a parent can have those available for you in your parenting challenges and successes and fail quickly in that. Right. So if you've heard something in this podcast that feeds your family and helps you parent your child, well, that's wonderful.

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