Ohio Coders Project
In the 2022-2023 school year, the Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation has adopted a STEM activity meant to engage and challenge middle and high school students in the southern Ohio region. The activity is supported by the Ohio Coders project and administered by Dr. Joshua Montgomery, computer science professor at Southern State Community College.
Dr. Montgomery developed a STEM activity for the foundation called the Grant Imahara Coding Challenge. This activity utilizes a previous activity that Montgomery built for the DroidBuilders organization called the STEM mini-dome that is a 50% scaled R2-D2 dome that schools can use to teach electronics and coding.
The Grant Imahara Coding Challenge uses the STEM mini-dome and requires students to develop a custom set of coding using a pre designed remote control that will make the domes move, play sounds and blink lights from button presses on the remote. Students are encouraged to add custom inputs and outputs to create a dome that is theirs!
To insure that all students in the southern Ohio region have access to this special project no matter their socioeconomic status, the Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation has provide funds to Southern State Community College. This funding will be used to buy the materials necessary for students to build their own mini-domes.
Dr. Montgomery will be administering the project as one of the supported projects in the Ohio Coders scholar initiative. On July 12th, 2022, Dr. Montgomery trained a set of educators that will be participating in the Grant Imahara Coding challenge. Six school districts and eight teachers will be working with their students this school year to build mini-domes. The number of students participating is currently unknown but based on initial projects, 50 to 100 students will be participating in the challenge.
