ON the 45th anniversary of Earth Day, robot sculptures created with recyclable materials by students in transitional kindergarten through eighth grade were on display for the first time in the auditorium at Holy Family Grade School in Glendale, Calif.

“We’re all contributing to the earth with these recycled sculptures,” said eighth grade student Mary Kate Pasco.

The sculptures were an Earth Day science project requiring students to build their own robot.

“We’re really looking toward the next generation science standards and the 21st century, so we really want our school to be focusing on STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics],” said Katy Monahan Huntley, vice principal and fourth grade teacher at the school.

“One way we are introducing it to our community is we have this family projects where parents and grandparents and siblings and cousins … come together and with their own funds of knowledge, start creating these robot sculptures.”

Students from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade completed the assignment, which constituted 10 percent of their fourth quarter science grade. The 100-point project was due just two days before Earth Day, on Monday, April 20.

“The more recyclables they can use, the higher the grade,” said Fidela Suelto, principal of Holy Family Grade School.

Student creations incorporated a variety of recyclables in their projects, such as toilet paper rolls, plastic beverage bottles, aluminum cans, egg cartons and Kleenex boxes.

Suelto, a Filipino, told the Asian Journal that of the nearly 300 students at the school more than 50 percent are Filipino.

Among those students is seventh-grader Gabriel Lorenzana, who, in addition to creating a robot sculpture, is an active participant in the school’s robotics club. The club has been in existence at the school for about three years, according to Timothy Barker, head of the club and a middle school math and science teacher at Holy Family.

Members of the club, who are in fifth through eighth grade, also demonstrated the their abilities to operate VEX robots they built (not made of recyclables) and competed to make the robots pick up and move blocks around.

“Robotics is a really nice thing to have in this school. I had an ultimate blast, having time with friends. It’s all about teamwork,” Lorenzana said. “Sometimes, you’re going to hit blocks here and there, but as that teamwork progresses, you know what to do and as you build robots it’s not about following instructions, it’s about bonding with others friends”

Eighth grader Gabie Santos said building her group’s robot, who they called Ike, was a fun and nice experience that involved teamwork.

“Along the way, we had to cooperate with each other and make sure that every step we did was right because one mistake would mess up the whole robot. We had a little mistakes when we finished, so we had Mr. Barker help us,” she said.

Huntley said one of the schoolwide learning expectations for students at the school is for them to become globally responsible citizens.

“That includes the environment, protecting our environment’s resources and [ensure] they really do understand recycling, that nothing is to be wasted, and the difference between renewable and non-renewable resources,” she said.

Suelto said the school is looking to have recyclable robots displays and VEX robot demonstrations for Earth Day on a yearly basis.

(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend April 25-28, 2015 Sec. A pg.5)