Summer school students learn coding through robot battles

Hillsdale Middle School summer students lined up on opposite sides of the school cafeteria. They were getting into position to have a battle, one they had been preparing for through a summer of math, reading and problem solving activities. The battle would not be between the students but between robots, which the students programmed to turn and move in specific ways by writing code. The science, technology, engineering and mathematics teacher, Jenny Stump, counted down. While the actual battles -- there ended up being multiple rounds -- only lasted a few minutes each, weeks of preparation went into building the skills necessary to execute the activity.