CTE Classes Like Robotics Help Students Gain Important Skills

“I thought I would have trouble understanding robotics because I have no idea how to do robotics,” Meeker Middle School Student Lutfiah Mustofa said. “But it was exciting and interesting, and I learned a lot of things that I didn’t even know about.”  

Lutfiah isn’t the first student to feel overwhelmed by the idea of taking a robotics class, but Kent School District Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers like Neeraj Agnihotri help make STEM learning fun and engaging for students, even during remote learning.  

“I’m not only teaching them, but I’m also learning from them every day,” Agnihotri said. “It’s two-way learning. I love seeing the kids excited to work and learn, even if I can only help them through the screen.” 

She said CTE classes like robotics are especially important for middle school students to experience hands-on learning and help figure out what they enjoy doing. 

“CTE classes are great way to teach students the basics and it really very helpful to help students to provide real world experience,” she said.

She’s also found ways to get creative with her lessons during remote learning.  

“I was using vex robots and Lego Mindstorms when we were in-person, but during this remote learning I’ve also taught students about various circuits and connected it to the real world by asking them to look around and think about how the circuits in their learning spaces work as well.”

Gamaliel Litvinenko, a seventh-grade student at Meeker, said he enjoyed learning about real life applications for their lessons. 

“Robotics was fun,” he said. “I enjoyed learning about coding because it was fun making things like the traffic light. It was really fun making games and things in Scratch because Scratch helps with coding and you can make your own games there.” 

Celebrating CTE Month in KSD

February is CTE Month, learn more about how our Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs and pathways are providing twenty-first century skills for our secondary students.

Article Source: Kent Meridian High School