Elementary students in the Woodland Hills School District are learning more than how to build and program robots — they’re learning resilience, teamwork and how to push through frustration.
In the program’s first year, students often cried or gave up when they struggled to successfully program their robots, said Tina Dietrich, Woodland Hills’ director of STEAM and Innovation.
Now in its fourth year, the program has produced a different kind of reaction: Dietrich recalled one student crying tears of joy after finally solving a task with a robot.
“Kids are persevering a lot more,” Dietrich said. “If things don’t work out, we push them to troubleshoot on their own.
“We say to students, ‘We don’t care if you don’t touch a robot after you leave Woodland Hills, as long as you remember the soft skills it produces — problem-solving, communication, teamwork.”
Woodland Hills’ STEAM and robotics programs, especially at the elementary and middle school levels, are helping students build more than academic skills — they’re also fostering inclusivity, teamwork and confidence.
“I’ve learned it’s OK to fail,” said Piper Yoder, a sixth-grade student at Dickson Preparatory STEAM Academy. “You can look back and see what you can do better next time.”
Woodland Hills recently sent two middle school teams to this year’s VEX Robotics World Championships in St. Louis. On Thursday, U.S. Steel and the Edgar Thomson Works presented the district with an $11,000 check that covered costs for the trip.
“You look at these groups, and you look at future leaders,” said Chris Hannigan, inventory manager at U.S. Steel. “You need to put them in a spot where they can succeed. As community members, it’s our responsibility to be on their court to help.”
Investing in the future is important for future employers, Hannigan said.
“If you don’t support it at this level, you’re going to run out of folks with these social skills,” he said.
Piper and other members of the middle school robotics team — including Kyra Scott, Stella Wheaton and Alex Estep — helped out Thursday for the district’s third-grade robotics competition at Turtle Creek Elementary. The older students served as mentors to the third grade students.
“It’s cool to see them looking at it in ways I probably didn’t look at when I was a kid,” said Piper, 12.
Dietrich emphasized the importance of collaboration and communication through academics and robotics. Younger generations are entering school more familiar with working individually than working with others.
“We’ve got to bring that back, and it’s something we have to focus on,” Dietrich said.
She also highlighted the inclusivity of the school’s robotics program. The district has a mother-daughter robotics program and Dietrich said she tries to bring in local women in engineering to talk with students.
“I always loved math and science, so if something like this was available, I would have taken to it and liked it,” Dietrich said. “I wasn’t exposed to it at a young age.”
The district offers students the opportunity to work with robotics that they might not otherwise receive. Out-of-school robotics programs are often inaccessible or costly for families, Dietrich said.
Almost 70% of students in the Woodland Hills School District are economically disadvantaged, reports the State Department of Education. Nearly 27% are special education students.
“A lot of districts offer robotics to their gifted classes,” Dietrich said. “We’re proud that we offer this for every child.”