Last Thursday, we made our sixth school visit in a series of 10 while one of our team members is on a road trip around the country. So far, we’d visited schools in Vermont, Illinois, two in California, and Alabama. The visit happened at the Socrates Academy Charter School in Matthews, NC as he headed from Myrtle Beach to Charlotte. Andy met Alexandria Killeen at Socrates Academy and gifted her the Merge Cube donation. It was a great treat for us to deliver this Merge Cube for Halloween even though her students got out early on that day (an awesome concept that we never got to enjoy)!
Alexandria applied for our EdTech grant back in April, wanting to bring more robotics and coding to all her students, who range from kindergarten to fifth grade. Though her school serves students from kindergarten all the way up through 12th grade, Alexandria works primarily with the younger children. She, however, has been unable to do much in terms of technology education with their limited technology access. In fact, she said in her application that the devices they usually use are approaching 10 years old!
Luckily, Socrates Academy was on the route, so Andy was sure to visit Alexandria and her students near the end. And, the road trip is ending in just a few days (this Thursday) and Andy still has four school visits. Anyway, this Merge Cube meeting took place on Thursday and Alexandria was excited to be able to have something new to introduce to her eager students the next day. She was also hoping that trick-or-treating wouldn’t be postponed because they were expecting rain that night in the Charlotte area.
Alexandria is determined to equip her students with new literacies in different kinds of areas—specifically some coding literacy skills. While the Merge Cube doesn’t necessarily involve coding practice, it certainly could help them to explore the world of augmented reality and help them to bolster key skills in this realm. Since these Cubes work with different devices, including phones and tablets, we’re hoping she can easily integrate it in lessons. We also let her know that we can offer guidance if she ever runs into any trouble.
Alexandria works with over 500 children since she is the school’s technology lab teacher. Although this is a small donation of only one unit, the Merge Cube can definitely offer something for everybody. Each student visits Alexandria’s technology lab once a week and she’s always looking for new tools to engage them. The Merge Cube can definitely accomplish both of those goals, often helping get kids excited about learning in this new medium, and the content within the Merge EDU platform involves a lot of the things they would be covering anyway.
In her application, for example, Alexandria mentioned wanting to use STEM tools to teach about the water cycle and evaporation. That’s right up the Merge Cube’s alley when paired with the content from its various mobile apps. It covers a lot of the classic science topics but in a more immersive and exciting way for kids. Alexandria wants students to learn to recognize new skills they'll gain from learning with technology. Then, they can use them in their futures, ideally helping them see how they could apply them in various careers.
We are definitely excited to be able to provide this new Merge Cube to use in the tech lab. Especially after learning about the state of the school’s devices, we certainly hope this donation helps out in positive ways! Alexandria loves creating real-world learning opportunities, making this trip to Matthews very rewarding. To keep up with updates on the other stops we’ve made, check out the News & Updates on our blog.