School's In Session with ROVE RC

As a parent of school-age children, it’s fun to see and hear how their teachers are thinking outside the box with regard to some of their classes and teaching methods. While they’re still relativley young, grade-wise, my kids appreciate the ability to go beyond the textbook and standard curricilum that I was used to in my years in elementary school. I’m a firm beliver in applying science, math, and other studies to real-world applications and the more interactive and engaging you can make the course and projects, the deeper you’ll get the hook into the student.

I’d say that my kids have some amazing teachers with some amazing education methods, but as an R/C fan, nothing can hold a candle to what Jacob Dohrmann is doing with his 5th-grade class at Reese Elementary School in Reese, Michigan. Jacob reached out to me last last week via Twitter and he quickly filled me in on his ROVE program that not only incorporates real-world applications for math, science and physics, but they also make (heavy) use of radio-controlled cars in this program.

ROVE stands for Rocket Outdoors and Ventures in Education. We are a club centered at Reese Elementary School in Reese, MI. This club focuses on many things directly related to science, technology, and engineering topics. We love being outdoors, doing hands on science experiments, researching new things, and exploring technology.

Using smaller-scale R/C vehicles, the students that participate in the ROVE RC program are able to prepare, tune, and race their vehicles. This not only teaches a number of great principals, but it also provides an amazing introduction into the radio-controlled hobby and might spark some of the students to pursue careers in the industry as they progress in their education.

The group holds racing events at Thumb RC with their most-recently “season finale” having been held this past weekend (April 11). From the event photos posted on the program website, the students that take part in the events are having the time of their life.

With races and other program-centric events taking place throughout the Summer, this is one group that I’ll be paying close attention to. Kudos to Jacob for thinking outside of the box with this program and creating a series of events and activites that are sure to stay with his students for quite some time!