Through continued connections with Mercer University, a College of Education alumna was able to take her sixth grade students to the Macon campus for a day of new experiences.
Stephanie Myers, a sixth grade teacher at Claxton Middle School in Evans County, earned her Specialist in Education (Ed.S.) degree with instructional coaching and computer science endorsements at Mercer in 2023. She was part of a student cohort supported by a National Science Foundation grant that Mercer received for an initiative to develop computer science teacher-leaders for schools in rural Georgia. Principal investigators on the grant were Dr. Thomas Koballa Jr., Dr. Susie Morrissey, Dr. Robert Allen and Dr. Anthony Choi.
Before becoming a teacher six years ago, Myers was a 4-H agent with the University of Georgia; so altogether, she has been teaching inside and outside the classroom for more than 20 years. At Claxton Middle, she developed and led a careers course for two years before teaching earth sciences and now English language arts.
Myers said her education at Mercer gave her the leverage to push for computer science education and opportunities in her school. She took Claxton Middle students to their first robotics competition as the school’s Beta Club sponsor, and she incorporates computer science concepts into her lesson plans.
Myers also started 30-minute computer science mentoring sessions for interested students, which blossomed into an after-school robotics program that now averages about 15 participants. Recently, some Georgia Tech professors have been joining the meetings virtually to help Myers teach coding.
“I have a passion for connecting students with real-world applications, especially in a university setting,” Myers said. “Claxton is in rural Georgia, and our students often don’t have the same opportunities as their urban counterparts. They sometimes feel less competitive because they may not have had the same experiences. So, I’ve always looked for opportunities to help our students grow. Mercer gave me that outlet.”
In May, Myers was named Teacher of the Year at Claxton Middle School. She believes her computer science work with students through her involvement in Mercer’s grant program was a major contributing factor to her award win.
Myers continues to meet monthly with her Mercer program cohort and professors, and during one gathering she learned about a small robotics competition being led by Dr. Flavio Campos on the Macon campus. Dr. Campos, assistant professor of computer science education, is the U.S. representative for the Federation of International Robot Sports Association (FIRA), which hosts robotics competitions including a World Cup in youth and pro leagues.
The April 15 Mercer event was the first FIRA-sponsored competition in the U.S., and the University will now host it annually, Dr. Campos said. In addition, Mercer will host a qualifying event for American, Canadian and Brazilian teams in 2028.
Myers said her ultimate goal is to make sure her students are aware of what opportunities exist for their careers. The robotics competition was a chance for them to have new experiences and rise to new challenges.
Divided into small groups, her 15 students participated in two “Mission Impossible” robotics challenges designed by Dr. Campos. They were tasked with moving a pile of blocks from one area to another and then throwing blocks into cups of various distances, Dr. Campos said.
“They were given a challenge on site, and they had to determine how to program their robot to complete that challenge given the time constraint,” Myers said. “I really liked how the criteria was not given to them ahead of time. It forced them to work together as a team. For them to be able to be on a university campus where they felt more of a prestige about what they were doing, that seemed to boost their confidence a lot.”
Myers’ students won first and third places in the software competition and first, second and third places in the hardware competition. They have been invited to participate in the World Cup youth league competition in Canada in July.
Dr. Campos said the students learned how to work as a team and apply their skills to different group roles.
“They develop a more complex thinking they don’t know prior to that, how they’re managing time with their solution,” he said. “They have fun learning in a different way. They’re so excited that they could go to a different country to represent their county and their school. You bring dreams and things like that for the kids, and I think that’s one of the most important things.”
The students also took a tour of the campus and ate lunch in the dining hall. Myers said some of them hadn’t thought about going to college before and had never been to a college campus, so the visit opened their eyes to new possibilities for their futures.
