L0 Robotics: (Age 6 to 9) : From 9:00 am to 10:15 am / From 11:30 am to 12:30 pm (Parents participation)
Level 0 is our ‘CURIOSITY BUILDING’ phase for next generation innovators! A strictly play based approach to introducing Robotics and Coding to elementary school students. No emphasized learning objectives, instead learning is passively obtained by playing hands on with the robots. No Jargons, No complex programming stuff. Only stories that involve robots, playing with robots, and having fun. Our Level 0 course is designed in this way, so kids won’t feel like they are in another school lesson. Instead, will feel like they are playing, while learning passively through interacting with the robots and exercise themes (stories).
Key points on Stories (Exercise Themes):
- Each day students are immersed into a story that involves a real robot.
- Most stories involve students completing a “mission”. For example, saving a robot puppy from a monster.
- Various props like colorful mats, mazes, obstacles, walls, and characters are used to help bring the story alive.
- To complete the mission or achieve the goal, students have to program a real physical robot, or build it, or both.
The advantage of physical robotics, over learning traditional STEM concepts on the computer or on paper, is that students get to see their code in action in real time right away. This gives a better understanding on the effect of coding and gives a greater level of satisfaction than one just in front of a screen.
We have a collection of various STEM Robots source from around the world. So, students get to use a different robot each month, keeping their interest and curiosity at a high. Give them exposure a wide variety of robots at a very young age.
L0 Coding & Digital Arts (Age 6 to 9): From 10:15 am to 11:15 am
L0 Coding sessions: L0 coding is a strictly play based approach to introducing coding using a variety of fun themes. But also, in L0 coding we go the extra mile and include many themes based on United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDG), because we believe it is important the next generation understand the big problems the planet faces today and will face in the future. We are planting the seeds in them, so that, maybe some of them will be inspired to find solutions to these problems. By the end of this coding session, students will have gained knowledge in writing long structured code sets in block-based programming (Scratch), and have enhanced their problem-solving skills and creativity.
L0 Digital Arts: The purpose of digital arts is to identify students with creative and imaginative abilities and lead them to a path of using digital tools to express their imagination. In these sessions, we introduce a new digital application every other class and does a project with it. We introduce students to a wide range of Artificial Intelligence based tools (Yes! – AI digital arts tools for elementary kids). This is NOT an arts session – but more of a “digital arts tool” session. It helps kids with drawing/painting abilities a lot but everyone can be a drawer/painter or artist with these tools.
For example, students will perform tasks like:
- Creating an animation of a blooming flower
- Making digital greeting cards
- Making wall art that can be used to decorate their rooms
- Creating music digitally
- Designing flyers and posters
- And more!
All the students need is imagination to create arts – we are there to help bring this image into reality.
The students can easily and quickly take their arts creation to the next level, and share their creations to the whole world digitally!
Learning Outcome after L0 Course Completion:
- Creativity and Innovation: Comes from hands-on STEM experience, exploring different robot designs, coming up with own mods, and from using the robot’s functionalities to complete objectives (missions).
- Coding: As they complete objectives by coding robots.
- Fine Motor Skills: As they build robots from kits etc.
- Presentation and Communication: Participants will practice presenting their robot creations, explaining the design to rest of the group.
OUR METHODOLOGY – OUR LEVEL 0 TO LEVEL 3 APPROACH
- Level 0 (ages 6 to 8) is our Excitement phase where we trigger the students’ interest and curiosity for technology.
- Level 1 (ages 9 to 13) is our Learn phase, where we follow the BC curriculum and go beyond to enhance the students’ understanding of electronics. Build a strong base knowledge on the topic.
- Level 2 is our Experience phase where students do a series of 2-3 month long projects for two years, gaining experience in various aspects in the field. I.e.; Put the learning from Level 1 to test, practice & refine.
- Level 3 is our Expertise phase which is a full one-year team project spanning multiple disciplines and done in partnership with secondary schools. This is an invitation only project.
Kids can choose to do Level 0 more than once and it will remain engaging because we are always using new robotic kits. Also as kids become more comfortable and take a deeper dive into our L0 kits, they can gain an overall better understanding of the robots, and transition into Level 1 better. Note: All other levels (L1/L2) are done only once.
General Notes:
- Pre-Requisites for Level 0 classes: Kids should be able to take instruction and be able to read basic English words and sentences before attending the class. No other pre-requisites.
- Kids who are special need, who are on the spectrum etc. please do not join the class. We are offering Parent Participation Classes at our center (17720 57 Ave Surrey) and in several schools in the evening. Please join those instead.
- There will be non-screen (i.e.; no laptops/tabs etc. to rest their eyes) breaks in during the program and students play games like Jenga & Uno to manage long stay. Please pack some extra snacks if they are staying for more than one class.
- Parents can see lot of pictures and videos of student’s classes in our facebook group (invitation only for parents) to see progression and so parents can ask better questions to their kids.
What is new in 2023-2024?
1. We are moving to a semester system to make our programs more affordable.
- Term 1: Oct 2023 to Dec 2023
- Term 2: Jan 2024 to Mar 2024
- Term 3: Apr 2024 to Jun 2024
2. Payment/Cancellation/Refund policy: Payment is done while registering for the first term and first day of each term automatically.
- Monthly Payment for the course at the center and online courses. The payments will be automatic deductions on first of the month for 10 months ( Oct 2023 to Jun 2024). To cancel for any reason, there is a two-week notice required. (Ex: email us at info@cloverdalerobotics.ca by March 15,2024 to cancel by end of March 2024).
- All months have the same fee, irrespective of the number of classes. We understand months like December and March will have only 2 or 3 classes due to school closures. We provide a half week camp( Winter camp/Spring Camp) at our Centre during this time to make up. More details will be shared later. No other refund, alternate arrangements or reduced fee will be provided.
3. From October 2023 onward, Cloverdale Robotics prioritize Digital Arts tools for this semester. We do not teach how to draw, art theory, but more so introduce students to tools, and help them with creation techniques, so they are more self-sufficient and can create digital arts on their own.
4. We provide progress reports to parents for each term. Parents can also view pictures and videos of classes, videos of activity done by students in our closed Facebook group.
5. We are including more robot build activities in the course. There are a lot more of hands on ‘robot build’ than previous year.
6. We maintain a student to teacher ratio of 12:1 so all kids can get attention. Teacher Biographies are in our team section.
7. Twenty (20) spots available. First come first served. Registration is open. Reserve your spots early.
8. We have increased the timeframe of many of the Level 0 and Level 1 robotics classes to 1.15 hour or 1:30 hours in order to accommodate more robot build sessions. So the sessions are longer. But this increases total cost of classes too. Parent participation classes and online classes will remain at 1 hour itself.
9. All students receive a course completion certificate at the end of the course.
10. Classes will be starting 7th October (Saturdays) 2023 and will go on till June 3rd week of 2024.
11. SCHOOL PICKUP AVAILABLE FROM many CLOVERDALE/LANGLEY SCHOOLS on weekdays as afterschool programs: Please see weekdays classes to register for weekday afterschool programs at our center in Cloverdale.
General Question:
Robotics Vs Coding Vs Digital Arts: Which course should take?
In a general sense, Robotics always involve physical objects and coding on them. There are mechanical, electronics, and coding portions in robotics. So it is a combination of multiple disciplines. Robotics is for kids who like build things, like to work on hands on things but also to code a bit etc. An engineering, experimental mindset is required. They should also have the GRIT to continue failure after failure.
Coding is for kids who are comfortable in coding. They could sit and code for long hours in front of a computer and not get bored with it.
Digital Arts is for imaginative kids. Creative types. Period. Our course does not teach them ‘arts’ we just introduce a lot of new digital tools that they can express their imagination using the new world tools. It is ideal for kids who already take art lessons somewhere else, or newbies who just to just try it out.
For more specific questions, please check our FAQ section.
