Concern for community is one of the Seven Cooperative Principles South Plains Electric Cooperative follows to bolster their efforts to give back. Operation Round Up and its board of directors created a mini-grant program that supports local teachers and helps fund classroom projects or educational field trips. This program is just one of the many ways SPEC supports the community to enhance the lives of members and their families.

Amie Little, a 5th, 6th, and 7th grade math teacher in Ropes, Texas, was a teacher mini-grant recipient. Little used her grant to purchase five Sphero mini robot balls and two Android tablets which will be used to program the robots. Students in Ropes’ cooperative math center groups use tablets and mini robots to solve programming tasks that get progressively more challenging.

The exercises serve to give students an understanding of basic algebraic reasoning that will then be applied to generate mathematical expressions and help solve algebraic equations. The process of learning to program the mini robots also teaches students critical thinking skills which can be applied to any problem they may encounter in the future.