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BRISTOL, R.I. – At the Audubon Nature Center and Aquarium in Bristol, dozens of second graders kneel on the floor, eyes fixed on a cluster of small robots as they bark, spin, and explore in all directions. Nearby, �鶹ɫ��Ƭ students sit beside them, fielding questions, offering guidance, and waiting with patience and encouragement while their young students rethink their code. It is an unassuming classroom where all students are learning about more than coding robotics.

For the fourth consecutive year, �鶹ɫ��Ƭ’s Coding for STEM course paired preservice teachers and second graders from The Croft School in Providence for a semester of learning built around coding, robotics, and problem-solving. 

“The partnership between �鶹ɫ��Ƭ and The Croft School was intentionally designed to create a sustained, developmentally appropriate approach to coding and robotics in elementary education,” said Katherine Blagden, Visiting Assistant Professor of STEM Education at �鶹ɫ��Ƭ. “By building on the work from session to session and year to year, the collaboration allows students to engage with computational thinking in meaningful ways while maintaining continuity with classroom teachers.”

Across four sessions, Croft students were introduced to coding beginning with foundational concepts such as sequencing and logic, then expanding into storytelling and hands-on robotics. Each lesson reinforced the idea that coding is not an isolated technical skill, but a way of understanding systems, patterns, and cause and effect.

For �鶹ɫ��Ƭ students, the partnership functioned as something closer to a teaching residency than a traditional course assignment. Rather than observing from the sidelines or delivering a single lesson, preservice teachers returned session after session, refining their instructional skills and learning how classroom relationships develop over time.

“Through this partnership, our preservice teachers are given the opportunity to step into authentic teaching roles and apply what they’re learning in real classrooms,” Blagden said. “Working directly with young learners in a hands-on, technology-rich environment builds their instructional confidence and prepares them to design integrated STEM experiences in their future careers.”

Following a series of classes held on �鶹ɫ��Ƭ’s Bristol campus, the served as an immersive location for the final session. There, students worked in small groups to explore bird migration through outdoor observation and robotics-based modeling.

Armed with paper binoculars, second graders ventured outside to observe birds, gathering ideas about movement, habitat, and patterns in nature. Back inside, they translated those observations into code, programming robots to represent migration routes and then explaining what they had learned throughout the semester.

For Madison Nash, an Elementary Education major with double minors in American Sign Language and STEM Education, the experience reinforced both her confidence and her sense of purpose.

“The fact that �鶹ɫ��Ƭ provides real-world teaching experiences is essential to improving my teaching skills,” said Nash, a junior from Gilford, N.H. “Being able to work with the Croft students throughout the semester helped me feel more confident teaching coding and robotics and better prepared for my future classroom.”

Moments of struggle, she added, often proved the most meaningful.

“Watching the students problem-solve when their robots didn’t work the way they expected reminded me why I want to teach,” Nash said. “They learned that you have to look at each step, figure out what went wrong, and try again – and seeing that perseverance develop over time was incredibly meaningful.”

Sophomore Sebastian Cruz, a Graphic Design and Educational Studies double major with a STEM Education minor from Bristol, R.I., said the experience reshaped how he thinks about classroom dynamics.

“It was surprising how well they collaborated and took turns,” Cruz said. “But what really stood out to me was that some of the students remembered me from earlier visits. Making those connections is a big part of teaching, and knowing I made an impression is one of my goals as an educator.”

From The Croft School’s perspective, the partnership offered students a chance to explore coding and problem-solving in ways that complemented their classroom learning.

“It has been an amazing partnership working with Professor Blagden and the STEM Education program at �鶹ɫ��Ƭ,” said Adrian Blackadar, a second-grade lead teacher at The Croft School. “The �鶹ɫ��Ƭ preservice teachers are eager to teach, learn, and engage with our students, and it’s been a joy to watch them build relationships, adapt their instruction, and work so closely throughout the semester.”

Blackadar said the partnership gave students repeated opportunities to practice problem-solving and think more deliberately about how they approach challenges.

“Coding and logic-based skills are incredibly important during elementary education, and this project reinforced those ideas in meaningful, hands-on ways for our students,” he said. “Seeing them apply careful thinking, problem-solving, and perseverance – and then ask for more opportunities to code back in our classroom – shows how this partnership has sparked a genuine interest in computer science and engineering.”

For the Croft students themselves, the impact is immediate and sparks their imagination. One second grader, Calvin, spoke about the project’s inspiring possibilities.

“My favorite thing was seeing all the teachers and learning how many things I can do,” said Calvin. “I want to be a scientist and work at NASA. If I could design a robot, I would fly it to space.”