Denver Christian participated in its first every robotics competition this last school year with rave reviews from participants. We’re eager to expand our robotics offerings in the 2020-2021 school year through new after-school club opportunities as well as expanded elementary STEM programming. Growing our robotics program aligns with our strategic plan. We want to provide opportunities for students to learn more about themselves as creative beings who themselves reflect their Creator. Through studying robotics, we hope that they grasp a deeper understanding and appreciation for the many ways God’s creativity is displayed around and in them. The steps in building a robot actually mirror processes we use in all of our classrooms at Denver Christian School. Planning, creating, building, experimenting, improvising, revising are the building blocks of our daily learning.
Robotics + Denver Christian School Reopening
We are moving forward with Robotics with the same attitude as we do with all of our fall plans for reopening Denver Christian School. Instead of taking the easy route and saying “no, not this year,” we are saying “yes, and what do we need to adapt to still do a great job with this and provide a safe experience for students?” We plan to start Robotics clubs around the end of September. As with all of our Fall 2020 plans, we are preparing for a variety of scenarios. With information available today, we anticipate running these clubs.
Who can participate?
4th – 8th grades after-school club
This after-school club would learn about building robots, programming, and problem solving using the VEX IQ robotics kits (made of plastic, similar to Lego Mindstorms). This group is an after-school club that does not participate in competitions.
7th-12th grades competitive team
Like athletics teams, this robotics team will meet after school and will include tryouts and competitions. This team would use the HS VEX robotics kits (made of metal and put together with gears, nuts, bolts, and screws, etc). This team would follow the annual VEX Challenge and work towards building robots that would compete against other schools.
STEM Integration
Introductory robotics will also be integrated into our STEM curriculum (during the school day) for all of our elementary students, beginning in kindergarten.
Schedule & Registration
We will publish the club schedules within the first month of school reopening. We expect clubs to begin late September or early October. As with all after-school clubs at Denver Christian, class sizes are limited and do include a fee. We will communicate details closer to opening registration.
You can listen to this podcast with Mr. Covey, head of schools, for additional information. You can also email Lauralee Veenstra, elementary school principal.