Dr. Andy Bruening, Director of Bridge Programs at PAST Foundation, and Tyler Hertenstein, Design Pathway Instructor and Technology Teacher at Metro Early College High School, join us to unbox the role of robotics, design thinking, and engineering in education today.

Both Andy and Tyler have seen first-hand the success of integrating robotics into the classroom and after-school clubs, and what happens when you get really creative with these hands-on opportunities to learn.

We unbox:

• Starting and overseeing the Metrobots, Metro's First Robotics Competition Team
• Why schools should invest in robotics teams
• The difference between being mentor-led and mentor-guided (and why the Metrobots is student-led)
• Why Andy and Tyler view their primary role as coaching soft skills, rather than engineering
• The PAST Foundation’s Center of Robotics Innovation (CORI)
• The time and effort that goes into a robotics team, and why it’s not “just for the nerds”
• Robotics competition is “the sport of the minds”
• Tyler’s college robotics football team would get “smoked” by anything his kids are currently coming up with
• Changing the dynamic of who’s participating in robotics
• How teachers and students who have an interest in robotics can spearhead programs like these in their own schools
• Why these programs needs good mentors that stick around, and those mentors don’t need to be engineers

Resources:

• Check out the Metrobots in action: https://www.3324metrobots.org/
• Learn more about PAST’s Bridge Programs: https://www.pastfoundation.org/bridge-programs
• Start A FIRST Robotics Team: https://www.pastfoundation.org/start-a-first-robotics-team
• Learn more about Metro: https://www.themetroschool.org/
• Connect with Andy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-bruening-6925049b/
• Connect with Tyler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-hertenstein/

Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate Media

Recorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio