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Bringing robots to early education classrooms in rural Nevada

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As part of our educational outreach to the community, PBS Reno createdCuriosity Classroom for preschool through 4th-graders. The program, which is free to schools and districts, uses on-air, online, and print resources to help parents, caregivers, and childhood educators prepare children for success.

As we were researching trends in STEAM education to update our program, we noticed that robots were at the forefront, but most of the opportunities only existed for middle and high school students. Here’s how we’re bringing robots to younger students in rural communities.

Bringing robots to the underserved communities

Curiosity Classroom is active in seven counties in rural Nevada. Much of that area is very rural. One of the things that makes us proud of this program is the fact that we are able to bring this technology to students who don’t necessarily have a lot of opportunities to interact with something like a robot. And we don’t just bring one robot to show them and then give them each five minutes to play with it. Every student has their own robot to work with throughout the program.

No one is ever excluded for financial reasons, just as anyone can access PBS on-air programming free of charge. We serve kids wherever we can within our service area, regardless of whether they are in a public school, private school, charter school, parochial school, or even part of a homeschooling cooperative.

Joy Foremaster, Director of Education, PBS Reno

Joy Foremaster is the Director of Education at PBS Reno. She develops the curriculum for Curiosity Classroom workshops and is the lead facilitator. She is a highly qualified teacher, with experience working in California State Preschool, Early Head Start, Head Start, and privately funded programs. She is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno with a dual degree in Early Childhood Education and Human Development and Family Studies. She can be reached at jforemaster@pbsreno.org.

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