HAYES ELEMENTARY

Mr. Lord from Keith and Karen Hayes Elementary stated, “As a GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) Specialist, I preach the value of amassing and applying a broad range of skill sets. One of the skills requisite in today’s rapidly advancing technological world is elementary and advanced coding and programming such entities as robots. The Ozobot EVO, small in stature though it may be, is hardly miniature in value. In fact its true worth is incalculable because it both delights the young mind while training it to understand and apply a coding system not dissimilar to that used in computer and robotic science. The Gifted and Talented Education Program at Hayes Elementary has long considered the value of hands on education as tantamount to the experience one receives in working a set job with set hours and days. While the mathematics and scientific theory behind the robotics and rocketry which we consider every year is rudimentary to the level of grade school students, the hands on activities produce a far greater and more profound reality for the students who must meet the challenge of applying those theoretical principles they do not fully comprehend. There is no comparison other than one of the seven great Shakespearean tragedies, to equal the magnitude of accomplishment when one of these young ones succeeds in a difficult challenge. They may not recall the math lesson on the patterns in arithmetic sequences but they will remember, and vividly, when they completed the seven Ozobot or Lego EV 3 challenges. That experience has no price tag possible.Thank you for your generous gifts to classrooms like ours at Hayes”. His “Wish” for Ozobots came true!