Developing Joyful Leaders Empowered by Academics and Integrity

INNOVATION LAB

The curriculum for our Lab is based on the technology skills the students need to acquire by the end of each grade to be successful and competitive.

Coding is part of the curriculum at Wesley Prep. Lower grades are introduced to it with a friendly coding language using plugged and unplugged activities. As they move on, students use various block-based coding programs to build algorithms. Some of the robots we use for Technology classes are the Code-a-Pillar, Botley, Sphero, and the interactive robot Jett from Robokind.

Age-appropriate web research practices are taught and reinforced, along with digital citizenship principles.

In computer lab, grades kindergarten through fifth grade use the software “Keyboarding Without Tears” which focuses on typing skills, using the correct finger position based on home row. Accuracy and speed are the goal, along with good posture. Students will interact with the word processing program Microsoft Word creating informational pages, book and research reports, including images and hyperlinks. Also, students will use the spreadsheet program Microsoft Excel to manipulate basic and complex data, arithmetic operations and functions. With Microsoft PowerPoint, students will create presentations and posters using slides to convey information rich in multimedia.

ROBOTICS

Our sixth graders become knowledgeable in engineering and confident in their abilities to work as a team, as together they realize success.

Sixth grade embarks on a journey of discovery…bringing all that they have learned thus far together in meaningful ways. Robotics allows our students to refine their teamwork and problem-solving skills. It gives the students the opportunity to create, collaborate, communicate and apply critical thinking. They can showcase their investigations and discoveries through an interactive competition called First Lego League Robotics Challenge. This nationally-recognized robotics competition includes project, presentation and robotics table tasks challenges. Students use the scientific method to hypothesize, test and retest how things work and interact. Their problem-solving skills are put to the test and prove to teach how math, science and engineering actually work.

Students begin their robotics adventure with a task to build the fastest robot they can build. Students consider all aspects of increasing the speed of a robot including gear ratios, friction, force, and design. After, they incorporate sensors, programming and attachments to complete further challenges. Students become quite skilled in robotics engineering. Once they have been introduced to each of these aspects of robotics, they are ready to start their robotics team table competition, which requires designing, engineering, programming and building a robot to complete multiple obstacles and tasks on our official competition table.

Our student learning is enriched through the robotics classroom as well as the competition. Our sixth graders become knowledgeable in engineering and confident in their abilities to work as a team, as together they realize success.