Students use robotics in world geography class

St. John Paul II High School teacher Julia Anne Valenti-Tontini challenged her ninth-grade honor students in her world geography class to use STREAM, coupled with robotics, to complete a wonder workshop project. The project was implemented and completed during National Catholic Schools Week, Jan. 28-Feb. 3.
 
The teacher assigned leadership roles to three of her students, Mary Arnolds, Therese Castillo and Bridgette Escamilla, and tasked them with choosing team members and a name for their team based on the prestigious Ivy League University they wished to attend.
 
"I wanted to encourage students to work together on activities designed to foster intellectual growth and team building. Something fun that wasn't a sitting in class routine," Valenti-Tontini said.
 
Each team was then assigned to a specific station and worked together to complete the task. Once the time was up, the team had to switch to the next activity and so on. 
 
In the first challenge, students working and coding with dash and dot robots had to move dash along the lines of latitude and longitude to a given location on the map. They not only had to code the movements of the robot, but also had to make sure they were properly reading and plotting points on the coordinate grid. 
 
During the second challenge, students worked as a team in answering review questions on the continent of Europe. Students were allowed to confer with each other to select the correct answers. 
 
In the third challenge, students were required to complete a 1,000-piece puzzle of the world. "The team members were not allowed to communicate with one another, because I wanted them to work on challenging quests that demanded determination, patience and logic to work it out," Valenti-Tontini said.   
 
The lesson ran for more than two days, an average of 50 minutes each. Valenti-Tontini said Team Harvard won, "because they because they demonstrated superior determination but also they were able to fully complete the tasks in the time established."
 
The members on Team Harvard were Mary Arnolds, Joshua Moreno, Corey Landa, Luke Castaneda and John Ramirez. 

View short video created for youtube by Isabella Rutledge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcuVen0ZnLI&feature=youtu.be