835 Teasley Elementary Students, 52 Robots and a Rotary Grant;

11/2015 - Small Robots invade Teasley Elementary! Students Delighted.

Teasley Elementary’s STEM teacher Erin Sumners said, “We want robotics technology to teach our students coding and computer programming. They are extremely excited about technology and robotics, and I hope to offer them growing experiences.” She had a specific list of needs.

Smyrna Rotary Club responded with $3,500 of technology: 12 Bee-Bots, 12 activity mats and two docking/charging stations for Grades K to 2 as well as 40 Ozobots for Grades 3 to 5. “Bee-Bots,” explains Sumners, “are a kid-friendly robot that will teach the 480 students in Grades K-2 coding, sequencing, problem solving and estimation. The Ozobots are for grades 3-5’s 355 students to learn coding and sequencing using iPads or their own drawings.”

Smyrna Rotary Club’s immediate Past President Scott Auer presented the robots and did a technology demonstration on Teasley Elementary’s morning TV show. Current President Narayan Sengupta, also on hand, says, “This is all about our vision for Smyrna as a city focusing on the future. Our Club is really interested in doing all that it can for our community. Smyrna’s kids need to have the best chances that they can at getting into great colleges and having great jobs. When Smyrna will need employees or customers, there is a good chance that they will come from Teasley Elementary and our other schools. This is why we have done project after project in the area’s schools including a recent $4,500 robotics grant at Griffin Middle School. Today’s students are tomorrow’s innovators, consumers and leaders. The better they are, the better our community’s long-term success and prosperity.”

Smyrna Rotary Club is having a membership drive. “More community and business leaders mean we can do more projects,” says Sengupta, “so we’re always interested for those who want to get involved and companies that want to partner up for local projects.” If interested, contact Smyrna Rotary Club at f25@nfiweb.com.

The final word is Sumner’s: “Many thanks, again, for the grant. The students have been stopping me in the hallway to ask about everything that they saw televised. Lots of excitement!”

Smyrna Rotary’s connection to Teasley Elementary School is with great thanks to Vinings Rotary’s Past President Joanne Robblee, who served many years as Teasley’s Principal. The $3,500 of equipment that Smyrna Rotary purchased was due to the $3,000 in grant monies provided as part of the District 6900 District Simplified Grant program. Thank you Joanne and all District 6900 Rotarians!

March 2016 update from Erin Sumners:

"Things are going very well! I also set up several traveling kits. I am housing all of the materials but teachers are able to request them and keep them in their classroom! It has been very excited to learn with our new technology. I will investigate our school website. Thanks, again, so much we are very appreciative. I will get back to you as soon as possible!

Also - on a side note, our school had a STEM night and I managed a table with the BeeBots for the students to show off to their parents! The parents were extremely impressed!"

2014-2015 Robotics for Griffin Middle School

In 2014-2015, Smyrna Rotaary and Rotary International donated $3,500 in robotics equipment to Griffin Middle School. The school's Science Club Sponsor/ISS Instructor/Science Teacher Richard White writes:

"The kids are really thriving with the tools that you all purchased for us. One of our three Lego Robotics teams advanced to Super Regionals this year, and all of them were able to use the kits to build their robots. I will be using some of the kits during the time after the Milestones test for students to explore engineering and programming. The Snap Circuit kits are such a huge hit, I allow students to use them if they have made a high enough score on our Almost There tests, and they love them. It actually gets them to study harder and do better on their exams. They love trying to make the circuits in the instructions and trying their own designs. We gave the other kits out as awards and prizes last year, and have enough left to do it again this year. The students really like having something of their own to build, take apart, and modify. The calculators were used during testing last year and will be used again this year. Everything that you all have given us has been such a blessing and great addition to what we offer our students. The Raspberry Pi will be put more to use in a few weeks as well, I want to allow some students to try their hand at coding so I will pull out a monitor, keyboard, and mouse for them to see what they can do. Thank you again for the kindness and generosity of the Rotary Club and its members."

Smyrna Rotary is always looking for the community's business and service leaders. For more information about the club or membership, please email f12@nfiweb.com.

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