For students in the Everett High STEM Academy, working on robotics projects often equaled sitting and waiting – sometimes actually never getting to take a turn on engineering the robots.
That was because the school district was only able to afford three of the expensive kits, which contain 1,300 pieces per kit. That meant there was a lot of sharing going on, and time spent taking turns. That has all been put to rest now due to the $12,800 donation from Exelon that helped to purchase eight new kits.
On Thursday morning, Exelon officials and school officials gathered with the students to celebrate the gift.
“Having three is ok,” said teacher Ann Seiders, “but we really needed a larger number of kits. However, we had to be frugal with the grant money we had. So, we had groups of four or five. Some didn’t get into it because they didn’t have a chance. It was a lot of sitting and waiting for others to finish. There will allow us to go to a two-to-one ratio and get more students engaged and more building activity.”
Exelon has long-partnered with the Everett Public Schools, and they said they were excited to be able to break down a barrier for the students. As engineers, they said they knew the value of having hands-on learning.
“We at Exelon Generation are thrilled to donate these robot kits to Everett High School’s STEM Academy to help spark students’ curiosity and interest in engineering through hands-on problem solving,” said Archie Gleason, general manager of Exelon Generation, Northeast Region. “Everett’s high-achieving STEM programs are opening doors to future employment opportunities in technical fields for their students.”
The students participating in Thursday’s presentation were: Daniel Bermudez, Lyanne Murphy, William Charbonnier, Isaac Lenescat, Chloe Lewis, Gustavo Aguiar, Ahmad Alananzeh, Evan Dupuis, and Melisa Demaku.