Columbus Elementary School is one of several New Rochelle schools where STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is a family affair! The school recently hosted the final of three workshops introducing coding to kindergarten and first-grade students and their families. Children and parents worked together to program a robot mouse to follow computer commands. They debugged their programs until the mouse could "get to the cheese."
The bilingual workshops are from the FLORES (Family Learning and Outreach for Research and Education in STEM) Project, created by Mercy College. The programs seek to empower parents to bring science into their child’s daily lives. Mercy College Master STEM Teacher Fellow Anny Vanegas, WIPRO Fellow Maia Starcevic, first-grade teacher Deanna Lasco, and English as a New Language (ENL) teacher Elva Franco led the workshops. WIPRO is a private firm that created a grant to promote science education. The support of Director Of Instructional Support Tiara Reyes-Vega, Principal Michael Galland, Interim Assistant Principal Francis Cruz, Dr. Meghan Marrero and Dr. Amanda Gunning of Mercy College, and the Columbus PTA is appreciated.
