Cooke Center for Learning and Development

This week, like thousands of other kids around the country, all the students at our Grammar School are celebrating National Robotics Week through robot-related activities during their technology classes.

As stated at the website www.nationalroboticsweek.org, one of the purposes of Robotics Week is to "Inspire students of all ages to pursue careers in robotics and other Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math-related fields."

Robots pervade many of the stories, books, movies and shows that children enjoy, so our students have a high awareness and prior knowledge of robots that we can build upon in school. We can do so through a variety of fun robot-related, and technology-related, activities that promote skills such as design thinking, problem solving, literacy, spatial awareness, teamwork, ethics and more.

Over the course of this week, the Grammar School students will have specifically engaged in robotics-minded activities such as:

• designing their own digital robots using computers
• exploring the variety of robot types and robot abilities through videos and apps
• using an augmented reality iPad app developed by NASA to project a 3D, moving version of the Mars Curiosity Rover robot, in the classroom
• sharing the kinds of robots they would like to have (robots to clean their room and help with homework were popular among our students)
• discussing, as our middle school students did, the powerful implications of "social robots," ones built for human interaction and capable of conversation (questions included "Should robots do our jobs for us? Would you want a robot to care for your sick parent?")

Here are some photos and video of the students working on the above:

The educational value and fun of studying robots and robotics is too great to compress into one week, so it's likely that the students will revisit this technology topic in the future. Their current lessons on robots will hopefully also provide a foundation for designing and building physical, interactive machines, perhaps with Lego Mindstorms or other similar, child-friendly robot kits.

We'll let you know how the further robotics learning goes!

-Roger Nembhard, Tech Integration Specialist, Cooke Center Grammar School 

This next video installment showing behind-the-scenes footage of the makings of this spring's Cooke Center Academy musical, Oliver, features singers Veronica and Conner.  Take a look!

Incorporating video into rehearsals is a terrific way to support the students' language and self-esteem. Students build their understanding of the characters they play, their body language and speech patterns by watching themselves on video. Students can watch their performance and build awareness by seeing if their speech is clear, if their voice holds emotion and if their body is portraying the body language they intended. In addition, and most importantly: students can watch and feel great about what they have done - and then they can share something they are proud of with friends and family!

Mark your calendars - performances of Oliver are scheduled for May 19th (4:30pm) and May 21st (6:30pm).

-Jana Agopian, Bethany Chase and Cindy Pearlman, Cooke Center Academy faculty and CCA Oliver Producers

Read the previous installment of behind-the-scenes of Oliver.

Daytime Moon Creations is a unique nonprofit that offers recreational arts programming to children and young adults with special needs. Through extracurricular programs in the community and in-school residencies, Daytime Moon provides a relaxed and playful environment that allows the class to become an indispensible outlet for creative expression.  In addition to the benefit of having a place for Cooke Alumni to gather and stay in touch, this program offers an opportunity for these young adults to pursue interests and learn in different ways than they might not otherwise have had a chance to explore.

This is the second year of Daytime workshops with Cooke Alumni Association. The workshop began last October and culminated in a theatrical performance in December, "Welcome to THE Show!" The play was written and performed by the Alumni at the Peoples Improv Theater. Cooke Center Academy senior and Daytime intern Jareth Rivera reviewed the show on Daytime's blog and wrote:

"Welcome to THE Show!' tells a story about working together and sticking with the group. It's funny, and I think people would like it...I think part of this [show] was easy and parts were hard.  I think it's hard to put on a play because some people get nervous. Coming up with the story and writing the whole play might have been hard, too. But, it looked like everyone was having fun! So maybe it was easy. "

For more information on the Cooke Alumni Association, contact Brian Clancy: bclancy@cookecenter.org

For more information about Daytime's prgrams, contact: information@daytimemooncreations.org

- Bryan Clancy, Alumni Association Coordinator, Cooke Alumni Association