By Nick McClintock
BLOOMINGTON – Students at St. Mary’s School in Bloomington will be getting a bit more tech savvy.
The school will be benefiting from a grant program from McDonald’s of Bloomington-Normal given to teacher Donna Zvonar. The $500 MAC (Make Activities Count) grant will go to the purchase of microrobots, called Bristlebots.
“Kids are really excited about robots,” Zvonar said. “Even though these are just microrobots and they are not programmable, maybe it will get some kids to the point where they would like to delve into that a little more deeply.”
The program will allow students to learn the basic of engineering, electronic and robot design by using the The Next Generation to make Bristlebots from toothbrushes, motors, batteries & circuits.
“We can teach circuitry,” Zvonar said. “We will use them to study about variables.”
The grant was presented during a school assembly this week. The MAC Grant Program is in it’s second year trying to help middle school teachers with innovative projects in the classroom.
Nick McClintock can be reached at nick.mcclintock@cumulus.com.
