Photo courtesy of Miami-Dade Public Library System.

Jessica Melgarejo Cespedes is the library services specialist in charge of systemwide programming in the Community Engagement and Programming department of the Miami-Dade Public Library System.

The Miami‑Dade Public Library System offered a week of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) programs consisting of five interactive workshops designed to give children and teens the power to create, learn and share during spring break. One of these innovative programs, taking place in two libraries, was “Robotics with LEGO Mindstorms,” led by volunteer software engineers from Ultimate Software and sponsored by Knight Foundation.  What began as a successful series of 10 workshops for the library’s YOUmedia Miami program at the North Dade Regional Library has become an equally successful half-day workshop, creating more opportunities for teens to participate.      RELATED LINKS    

“Miami Dade libraries offering new tech classes with Knight support” by Jessica Melgarejo Cespedes and Alisha Latham, 01/05/15

The brainchild and organizer behind this program is Jairo Pava, an engineer at Ultimate Software and an alumnus of Florida International University. He hopes the experience is as valuable to the participants as it is to him and believes it can ignite interest in a career that will not only provide a good life for them but eventually lead to addressing global issues by way of engineering intervention. Jairo was pivotal to the success of this program by training his coworkers on working with the teens, using the LEGO Mindstorms and leading the four-hour-long workshops.    

The building and programming of the robots demonstrated a variety of principles, including the notion of work as a fulfilling and enjoyable part of life, problem-solving, teamwork, spatial understanding and mathematical applications beyond the classroom. The library offered a unique setting and provided the opportunity for students to work with accomplished professionals in a safe, neutral environment. There was immediate camaraderie between the engineers and the teens. All participants were fully engaged in the activity as they improved their robots’ performance and cheered each other on as they navigated their robots through a challenging maze. To finish the maze, teens worked with a volunteer engineer to calculate the distance and number of rotations on the robot’s wheel versus the turning radius on the maze.    

Although the library has always been a place for learning, new partnerships, technology initiatives and grants have allowed this learning to take place beyond the pages of a book. These programs speak volumes as to the importance and possibility in developing public/private partnerships. For this program to take place, three organizations came together to provide a quality experience where young people not only interacted with successful, practicing engineers to learn the trade but were also encouraged to think about their future.  For teens and their parents, these programs further emphasize the library’s evolution as a relevant gathering place where learning, genius and culture flourish. A younger teen, Rio “came to learn about engineering and had lots of fun.” Noor, parent of a participant, thought it was a good opportunity for teens “to execute something with their minds rather than the commodity of things online or on their phones.” 

Ultimate Software encouraged their employees to volunteer at the Main Library on Friday, March 20,  and the North Dade Regional Library on Monday, March 23. The technology used to facilitate the program was purchased through a $25,000 grant from Knight Foundation. The two programs introduced more than 50 teens, and a few librarians, into the exciting and fun world of robotics and engineering.