NextWaveSTEM Course Catalog

Robotics

Grades K-2 | Introduction to Robots: What is a Robot?

Telling stories is important to teaching coding! The Colby Robot helps students learn how to tell stories using button-based code. During the course, early elementary students will use their Colby robots to draw numbers, tell a story, hunt for treasure, and complete hands-on activities to build their understanding of robotics.

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Grades 3-5 | Discovery of Robots: Coding mBot

How can students learn about coding and robotics at the same time? Building and coding come to life for students as they interact with the mBot! Students will create a robot that tracks and follows a line, responds with sound, flashes lights, and competes in a series of robot tasks and challenges.

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Grades 6-8 | Exploration of Robots: Coding mBot for a Purpose

How important are robots to our everyday lives? How can we be creators of this amazing technology as opposed to being just consumers of what robots produce? These are just a few of the questions that students will explore as they learn how to build, code, and operate the mBot robot! Students build connections to real-world robotics by responding to and avoiding objects, recognizing and following line marks combining skills to complete a competition challenge.

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Drones

Grades K-2 | Introduction to Drones: Take flight!

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a drone?! For our earliest learners, drone technology may seem fantastic but is an amazing way to explore the science of flight and learn more about the world around them. By learning about the fundamental forces of flight, and flying their hand-operating drones, students start building the foundations for the ways drones are used every day!

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Grades 3-5 | Discovery of Unmanned Aviation

The future of flight is autonomous, and students are ready to fly using their computer skills today! Students will fly Tello drones as pilots and operators; simulating practical real world scenarios, testing the drone’s range and abilities, & imagining the future of drone technologies.

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Grades 6-8 | Exploration of Drones: Coding With Tello

Whether it’s exploring other planets, delivering packages, or moving the citizens of the future from work to home, unmanned aerial vehicles have the potential to change the world. Through a series of lessons that build on foundational flight and coding skills, students will learn how to simulate drone flights, collect data using sensors and perform drone photography.

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Grades 9-12 | Creation and Evaluation of Drones: Coding with Tello

Students develop a better understanding of safe, ethical, and innovative drone technologies and their critical impact on the future. Learning how to effectively use a drone becomes an amazing way to integrate math and engineering concepts for students while having lots of fun too! Students analyze and apply how Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV or drones) work and can be used to solve real-world problems. Through manual control, students will explore the drone’s range while building protocols for effective UAV operation. Using the Droneblocks app, students will program the drone for autonomous flight while practicing simulations for package delivery, and wildlife photography.

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Artificial Intelligence

Grades K-2 | Introduction to Artificial Intelligence: Lions, and Tigers, and AI!

The Zappsville Zoo focuses on protecting and healing endangered animals! It's getting busy and the staff has asked YOU to help them design robotic and AI solutions. Over these 10 lessons, early elementary students will complete hands-on activities introducing them to basic AI, robotics, and machine learning concepts as they solve a variety of zoo-themed challenges!

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Grades 3-5 | Discovery of Artificial Intelligence: ARTificial Intelligence Artists

When science and art merge, what do we get? Wonder. Students will explore various artistic media and the core concepts of artificial intelligence as they unleash their inner-creative through several wonder-based lessons.

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Grades 6-8 | Exploration of Artificial Intelligence: Character AIsland

Welcome to Character AIsland: a digital paradise where you can meet and interact with AI versions of celebrities, fictional characters, historical figures, and even yourself! Throughout this course, students will learn the basics of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Chatbots as they train and program their very own virtual characters using Scratch and Machine Learning for Kids. Students will explore text, voice, and image recognition as they craft realistic AI chatbots bursting with personality.

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Grades 9-12 | Advanced Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

Increasingly, AI is changing the way we make decisions, communicate with each other, and preserve the future health of our world. It’s critical that students become informed digital citizens when encountering these systems. Students will learn about artificial intelligence, and its real-life applications. From facial recognition to autonomous cars, they will find out that computers and AI are everywhere around us!

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3D Printing

Grades 3-5 | Discovery of 3D Design Using Tinkercad

3D printing used to only exist in the realm of science fiction but now it’s science fact. Students build key skills that are essential to the next industrial revolution by: designing 3D objects using Tinkercad, creating a detailed blueprint and sketch of a design solution brainstorming ways that 3D Printing can solve a real-world problem physically printing using CAD software.

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Grades 6-8 | Exploration of 3D Development Using Tinkercad

3D printing technologies are rapidly revolutionizing the ways we make things. Homes, clothes, transportation, and even food are being 3D printed! At the heart of that revolution is the Engineering Design Process: building solutions to help people. Students will put the Engineering Design Process at the forefront of their thinking and skill development as they learn how to design objects like stamps, architectural models, and simple machines

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Grades 9-12 | Creatively Using 3D Technology for the Real World

Engineers, designers, architects and professionals in a diverse number of fields 3D print everyday. Additive manufacturing skills will be critical to jobs of the future. Students in this course get a head start learning how to put this emerging technology to use. Students analyze and apply how a 3D printer works and how it can be creatively used to solve real-world problems. Students will go from a blank 3D design canvas to a full physical print out—making their ideas come to life!

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Renewable Energy

Grades 3-5 | Discovery of Solar Power and Renewable Energy: Designing Systems

Understanding connected systems of energy is critical to our students’ future success and happiness. Practices that get clean power where it needs to go are critical to humanity. Students will get hands on and build a working model of a solar powered energy system to learn more about connected power infrastructure.

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Invention and Entrepreneurship

Grades 6-8 | Exploration of Invention & Entrepreneurship: From Idea to Market

This course helps activate STEM, Invention, and Entrepreneurship learning to instill problem-identification, problem-solving and creativity skills inspiring young people to become innovators, inventors, and entrepreneurs. Students will find inspiration as they explore what makes something an invention and study the history of some inventions that have shaped our way of life.

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Internet of Things

Grades 6-8 | Exploration of Internet of Things (IoT): Designing an IoT Device

With IoT, everything is online, including homes, cars, people, medical devices, and even farming equipment. In this course, students will explore example IoT applications, and plan a project to solve problems for an end-user. Students will program a microcomputer to build an IoT device that can control lights, and respond using a microphone to complete an internet connected device project.

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