Peter Han, who earned an MEdT from the College of Education, is leading his award-winning robotics program at Assets School to community outreach and the spotlight. Recently featured on KHON2 News, Han and his robotics students have created a roving robot that is helping frontline workers by delivering food to COVID-19 patients.
Han, who previously taught math, physics, and computer science at Assets, says his students really wanted to contribute in some way during the pandemic. Through virtual meetings, his robotics class designed and built the structure over a three-month period.
“What I love about this robotics program is that my students don’t actually get a grade from me,” Han shared. “They see my passion in robots, and they share their passion of building robots with me. From my teaching experience and throughout the MEdT program, I realized connecting with students is more important over content teaching.”
Queen’s Medical Center is now planning to use the robot in their Advanced Respiratory and Emerging Infectious Disease Unit. As a result of this partnership, they have donated $5,000 to the Assets School robotics program.
Han’s robotics class, which won second place in the 2019 Robotics Hawai‘i State Championship, has more projects underway to help the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, like designing and creating face shields.
“I would say to anyone considering becoming a teacher to find your passion, your reason you want to go into teaching in the first place, and never forget why you are here,” Han said. “If students can’t feel that you care about them, then there won’t be any learning to begin with. I am privileged to work with these talented and dedicated students.”
