Topics at Rotary Club of Chilton County meetings the past two weeks have ranged from bots to blooms.

The club’s latest guest speakers were Jay LeCroy with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program at LeCroy Career Tech Center and Sondra Henley, president of Chilton County Master Gardeners.

Henley spoke to the club on May 15 at Clara’s Country Cafe about the Master Gardeners program. The next session will be from January to March 2014.

Henley, a Jemison resident, said she used the program to meet people in Chilton County.

Now, she teaches composting in addition to her administrative role.

Henley told club members how Master Gardeners volunteer their time to help with beautification projects around the county and help with a gardening hotline.

“The Master Gardeners program is a valuable program for Chilton County,” she said.

The group currently has 64 members.

LeCroy, meanwhile, shared with club members on May 8 his view that the education model in the United States is updated and how he uses a hands-on, technology-based approach to teaching students, particularly in the science and engineering fields.

“You’re personalizing education,” LeCroy said. “What we have now is one-size-fits-all. If it’s personalized, we’ve got something for everybody.”

LeCroy said he takes on the role of a supervisor and the classroom as a workplace as students design, build, test and market robots for competitions.

“We try to get them out of that passive eduation mode and into an active education mode where they’re always working,” he said.