Robotics program at Hartselle Intermediate ignites passion, learning
Suzanne Mozley was teaching at F. E. Burleson when her son was involved with the computer science classes at Hartselle High School. In 2015 she was invited to attend a robotics competition with the team from Hartselle High School as an additional Hartselle City Schools staff member and that experience showed her the potential for a robotics program for all ages. “I went and just knew I wanted to do it with my kids,” Mozley said. “So I brought it back and started it with my fourth graders at Burleson as an after school club.” Despite not having a background in computer science and robotics, Mozley says she saw the passion that the kids had for the program and it was contagious to her.
In 2017 Mozley moved to Hartselle Intermediate School and took the robotics program with her, continuing as an after school program the first year which then grew to an elective course with the encouragement of HIS Principal Earon Sheats. “For the last five years it’s been an elective choice for our sixth grade students, which is awesome because we can include more kids and they get to do it every day during the day.”
In addition to her robotics class, which is more focused on engineering and design, Mozley also has a computer science class that focuses on computer programming. Both classes have an exploratory emphasis, giving the sixth graders their first opportunity to pursue their interests in these areas. Mozley says giving the students a fun experience that allows them to explore how to build and program opens the students up to pursue more STEM programs and classes in the future.
“I really encourage the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students to try all the things that they think they are interested in so that when they get to high school and college they already know the path they want to take and have already found their focus,” Mozley says. “Really that’s our purpose; to give them a starting point to see if it’s something they’re interested in.”
In addition to the daily classes at HIS, the computer science and robotics programs participate in competitions as time and funds allow. The HIS program will participate in two or three local competitions this year and if they perform well they will have the opportunity to go to the state competition, and from there they may have an opportunity to participate in the Worlds competition.
Mozley says her goal is to see these programs grow at HIS where classes can be offered all day and to fifth graders in addition to sixth graders. “Right now it’s only offered to sixth graders even though there is fifth grade interest. Hopefully one of these days we can have fifth graders on board too; that would be our next step for HIS. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of work and the kids really enjoy the process. We talk about the different careers that utilize robotics and computer science and I just wish I had had that. I wish growing up you weren’t always wondering. These kids these days get an amazing opportunity to try everything and I think it’s amazing and can’t wait to see it grow.”
