Staff Reports | Community Updates
Navajo Elementary School at 4525 N. Granite Reef Road in south Scottsdale continues to gain positive attention for efforts on and off the campus.
Over the summer, Navajo was named the East Valley’s Best Public School in azcentral’s “Best of the Desert Community’s Choice” Awards whereas these annual awards recognize top organizations and businesses in the Valley of the Sun in more than 200 categories.
Navajo took the title in the “Kids & Education” category. SUSD’s Saguaro High School was a finalist in that same public schools category.
“Every single day, I witness firsthand Navajo students, staff, our parents, community and district leadership working together to help children reach their full potential,” said Principal Matt Patzlaff. “I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve achieved and what we continue to accomplish as we continue to deliver a world-class, future-focused learning experience to our students.”
Fourth grade teacher Dianna Davis headed up a team of Navajo educators responsible for the school’s garnering of a second community accolade: Navajo received a $5,000 “Futureshaper Robotics Program” grant from Honeywell and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The grant will be used to purchase Edison robots and sets of small Micro:bits computers that students will code and operate to solve dilemmas faced by the main character of Peter Brown’s book, ‘The Wild Robot.’
“The grant will help me enrich and extend my students’ understanding of the unit by having them use the robots and minicomputers to code and design alternate solutions to address the many interesting situations in which the book’s main character finds herself,” Ms. Davis said.
In addition to the robots kits and minicomputers, the grant money will also be used to purchase extension pieces, Brown’s book, flashlights, rechargeable batteries and chargers, weights, storage containers and mats for the robots to run on.
Ms. Davis says she is excited for her class to see how computer hardware and software work together as a whole computer system.
“I expect my students to run into roadblocks along the way, but they’ll gain experience along the way as they work and rework potential solutions until breakthroughs happen,” she said.
Navajo was one of just 10 Arizona schools to receive a Futureshaper grant during the Diamondbacks’ 2024 Major League Baseball season.
