Hello,
My name is Mitchell Way and I am a high school Robotics teacher in Calgary Alberta.
This is my second MET course and was the one that caught my eye the most when browsing this program.
Early in my teaching career I wandered into teaching Robotics and it has been one wild ride. In 2016 I was given the opportunity to lead the Career and Technology Studies Department at Nelson Mandela High School at its founding. I ended up teaching Robotics and Petroleum Engineering (because…Alberta) from my modest classroom which I branded The Lab Under The Stairs.
http://thelabunderthestairs.blogspot.com/
In the last five years at Mandela I have had the honor of starting team 7277 the Mandela United Squadron, a FIRST Robotics Competition team that builds and competes with big and small robots. (That is me in the front row holding my daughter after the team won the Rookie All Star Award in 2018)
Here are some fun links of that team’s exploits which include two trips to the Houston (World) Champs.
https://bit.ly/2019SeasonRecap
My background in mobile and open tech is through open-sourcing almost everything I’ve done in the last decade. I literally teach a module in Creative Commons now! I also have made my course resources public in order to share them as far as I can in the rather small-world of Robotics Education.
I look forward to meeting all of you and engaging with this fantastic topic.
Hello Mitchell,
Wow, Team 7277 has accomplished so much, I enjoyed watching the videos highlighting the innovative projects. Very unique learning environment, I look forward to you sharing your experiences and perspectives. I agree with Miguel I would have loved having that experience.
“This is the way”. I always wished my school had the privilege of having a robotics program. I would’ve loved that growing up. What an amazing accomplishment in the robotics world! You have clearly made so many students happy and created a beautiful community. I believe you will learn some great aplicable material in their course and I hope to learn lots from you too. Thank you for sharing the links!