Do you know kids start to form career choices between the age of 7 and 12? With the advent of Robotics, AI, Virtual Reality etc. many traditional jobs are disappearing, and new opportunities are appearing constantly. Learning Robotics, Coding & AI will help kids prepare to grab these opportunities. So let us grow their interests in the tech of tomorrow! We are bringing in one of the leading Robotics Education providers to the school.
Intermediate Robotics & Coding: (Age 9 to 13) :
This course introduces students to the world of computer programming and robotics for beginners. First hour focuses on robotics followed by a quick 10-minute snack break and followed by computer programming (Scratch & Python) session.
Robotics session include real, physical robots for students to build and program. During the first few months students use simpler robots. However, our robots change every month or other month. Students program robots using an easy to use, drag and drop interface or a python-like interface. Some of the day-to-day activities include programming a robot hand to grab objects with five fingers, programming a drawing robot that use real paper and markers to draw shapes or pictures. Students will also program robots to traverse mazes or program them to walk on four legs. As for curriculum, BC ADST curriculum is covered and goes beyond. BC ADST curriculum can be found here.
The second part of the class is focused on Computer Programming which includes both theory and learning via projects. This part starts off with programming concepts using the scratch language to quickly walkthrough the key programming concepts. After 1-2 months the course switch solely to the programming language of Python. Python is a very powerful, industry strength programming language that is an extremely valuable skill to have.
Details of Robotics modules: (School dismissal to 4.00 pm)
Module 1: Fundamentals— Historic understanding of both hardware and software portions of Robots.
Module 2: Navigation & Robot Math— Foundational concepts/theory of Robot programming and attaining precision in movements. Ends with real world mini projects from industries using these concepts.
Module 3: Sensors— Various sensors robots use and adjust actions based on those. Ends with real world mini projects from industries using these concepts.
Module 4: Robot Build: Building robots
Module 5: Control— Complex logic portions in processing input and programming for more intelligent decisions.
Module 6: Future Careers, Ethics and Humanism aspects of Robotics
Details of Coding modules: (4:00 pm to 5.00 pm)
Module 1: First focus is on the basics of programming – Like the right ways to code, algorithms, modular programming (divide & conquer) etc. by using simple examples and real-world scenarios. Uses scratch programming language.
Module 2: Introduction to Python:
Module 3: ‘Big ideas’ and computational thinking approach. Simple projects that practise these concepts and team projects.
Module 4: Testing and Debugging : Introduction to testing, debugging methodology. Do’s and Don’ts in testing and debugging.
Module 5: Advanced Projects involving Python. Concepts like object-oriented programming in Python. Classes and Inheritance. Students are introduced to the idea of working as a team to achieve larger coding projects, modularizing, defining roles and responsibilities, interfaces etc.
Module 6: Review of Python standard libraries.
Module 7: MONTH LONG FINAL PROJECT.
Note 1: All our Level 0 and Level 1 courses are 30-40 hours of direct instructor training in person or online. Level 1 also has similar hours of optional homework.
Note 2: What is new in 2022-2023? From 2022 sept onwards, we are adding more robot build activities and combining our Level 1 robotics programming and Level 1 robot build courses to a single Level 1 Robotics course. This gives the students to complete the Robotics and Computer programming L1 courses the same year. We are changing robots every month or other month to keep the interest of kids going as well as to expose students various types of robots.
Note 3: All our Level 0 and Level 1 courses are 30-40 hours of direct instructor training in person or online. Level 1 also has similar hours of optional homework.
NOTE: Grade 4 (Age 9) is considered a transition year. They can choose either Level 0 or Level 1 to start with and switch to the other level any month based on their comfort level.
