Rotary Teacher Grant Helps Promotes Robotics

The Moraine Rotary Club Teacher Grant in Memory of Robert Rosencrans for the 2016-2017 school year was awarded to fifth grade teacher Joy Feola at Frank Nicholas Elementary School. Mrs. Feola’s grant was titled “LEGO Education PBL Projects.”

The Moraine Rotary Grant of $500 covered a partial amount of the overall grant which purchased ten LEGO robotic kits to serve 40 students. The kits consisted of lego pieces, motion sensors, wheels, smart hubs, small camera and tilt sensors.

The kits are a small scale of what NASA is doing. Feola can create her own problem for the class and students design the robot to solve the problem, document it and write a lab report. Students can in effect build LEGO rovers that move and perform functions.

Frank Nicholas Elementary School is the only Elementary School in the district offering a form of robotics. The next robotics program is not available until high school.

Chartered in 1984, the club has raised more than $380,000 over the past 33 years used for various community service, school and international projects and programs that add to the quality of life in Moraine. Recent projects include a disc golf course, a stone park bench and exercise stations installed at Deer Meadow Park and $2,000 donation to Pirate Packs, a program that provides food bags for needy children on weekends. The club meets on the first and second Wednesdays from 7:30am to 8:30am and on the third Wednesday from 5:30pm to 6:30pm at the City of Moraine Payne Recreation Center Rotary Room, 3800 Main Street. Stop in for free breakfast, weekly speaker and opportunities to network with members. For information contact Rotary President Don Schweitzer at 643-3820.