Two boys use an iPad to drive a Sphero robot.

On Tuesday, November 28, Damascus Middle School hosted a STEM day, during which students were introduced (or reintroduced) to Sphero robots and Pico 3 VR headsets. Although some students had worked with Sphero robots before, they were able to practice driving the Spheros with iPads and executing driving challenges successfully. Eventually, students will use block coding to code the Spheros to complete tasks that are relevant to activities they are doing in class. Seventh-grade students completed a tutorial on our new Pico 3 VR headsets, and are now ready to use the headsets for a project at the end of the semester. Damascus Middle School’s Instructional Technology Resource Teacher (ITRT) Valerie Cox, along with other ITRTs Thomas Larimer and Andrew Smith and Supervisor of Innovation, Professional Development, & Assessment Dr. Tammy Williams, organized this STEM day as preparation for a visit from Washington County’s new mobile STEM trailer, TechTrek.