Hey, did you hear that this coming week is National Robotics Week!? That’s right—from April 4-12, we’re celebrating the best of robotics in STEM education, from the learning opportunities they provide to the services they help complete! Find out how to make robotics a regular part of your curriculum!
Robotics Knowledge Leads to Opportunities
A lot of the time, many students choose their intended career path due to some exposure to a certain area of interest while in middle or high school. Whether in the classroom or as a voluntary afterschool activity, robotics has been known to grab hold of many students and pique interests they never knew they had. By building a foundation of robotics knowledge early on in their lives, kids tend to gravitate towards pursuing a future STEM career in areas such as programming and design. We all know that technology, and perhaps robotics specifically, is the future of the workforce. An introduction to the robotics field during the course of a child’s education could result in better opportunities without anyone even realizing it at the time.
Engagement in simple robotics tasks and activities tend to show kids that they truly can build futures as engineers, scientists or in any STEM filed they want. It doesn’t take that long—perhaps a month or two—to get these curious students comfortable with building and programming their robots. It’s this kind of hands-on learning that not only helps them grasp the details more effectively, but positions them for increased success down the road since future jobs will demand the ability to perform hands-on tasks and create innovative solutions to complex problems. When shown the process in step-by-step increments, the task of programming a robot becomes a lot less daunting to students. It leaves them with a much greater since of optimism and excitement, too.
Most of the time, the software in robotics kits is super intuitive and easy to use, generally designed specifically for beginners to start programming right away. Plenty of products, like the EZ-Robot series and the Ozobot, are even designed for STEM educators to use in their classrooms with students who are perhaps even younger than middle school-aged. These kinds of robots encourage student building, programming and customization through hands-on play with a tool that has a host of real-world benefits. There are already thousands of teacher advocates for future careers in technology in every area of the country. When they realize the kinds of opportunities that learning with robotics provide, the simplicity with which they can help kids meet their goals and the seamless alignment with educational standards, they tend to jump on the opportunity. New experiences and creative tools will lead to a better future for today’s students.
Robotics, Education and Low-Risk Failure
If you think it’s too early to start learning about robotics, there’s a good chance you’re wrong. Exposing children to early experiences with coding and programming is highly beneficial, especially since it seems almost certain that they will be entering a world that will demand their proficiency in these areas. Providing students with a base of technical skills will make a real difference in their success and in their lives. Just simple tinkering with uncomplicated microrobots, like the Ozobot, will get kids coding without them even realizing it. Robots give them a tangible learning goal—something they can feel, build, touch and improve.
One of the most important things that robotics units provide, especially in STEM classrooms, is the opportunity and expectation for kids to productively fail. Robotics encourage experimentation as kids put their trial and error skills to use. When programming, kids will often gain the basic idea rather quickly, but take some time to actually get the flawless results they want. Each failed attempt, though, is a learning experience—and an important one. Returning to the “scene” of error, finding just where things went wrong and correcting the mistake is an instantly gratifying feeling for children. Robots are perfect for instilling the notions of persistence in kids while they use their hands to learn.
Advocates of growth mindset will tell you how important it is for teachers to create plenty of opportunities for kids to fail, make informed revisions and watch as their mistakes turn into true learning experiences. Creation and correction is a necessary part of programming, but, more importantly, it builds an undeniable confidence in students. Each error is just a reminder that students have the opportunity to rework what they’ve done and refine it in order to be successful. Robotics helps kids realize that they actually can think their way out of any jam—and they have the technology to help them right at their fingertips.
It Seems Robots Really Could Replace Teachers
Nowadays, it seems that nobody’s job is safe. The advances in robotics technology are well on their way to creating a workforce in which employers do not have to pay their employees because, well, they are robots. Much of the discussion centers on repetitive jobs, such as factory workers or mechanics, but, in reality, no job is safe. “Not even teachers?” you might ask. As crucial of a job as teaching is, it would seem realistic that robots would not be able to sufficiently replace the intangible qualities that all teachers possess, such as teaching things that go beyond any textbook, but we have no idea what future technology possibilities have in store.
Some of the more lucrative future “careers” for robots include humanitarian work, medical roles, drivers and even shopping assistants—things that don’t really require a whole lot of relating to young people. For this possibility to become reality, scientists would probably need to figure out a way to create robots that had built-in feelings and were able to react to a wide range of classroom situations, such as a chatty bunch or a fidgety child. Expressing emotions would be important, too. Teachers need to make their students feel comfortable with a genuine smile or show their sense of humor by laughing from time to time. On the plus side, students could pick the “brains” of their robotic teachers and be provided with an answer for any question they might have. It would also take a lot less time for them to grade tests and papers.
No, this isn’t happening any time soon—and likely will never happen. It’s a good thing to get kids thinking about, however. Teachers are tasked with using hands-on learning to mold students who will grow up to be capable of solving these kinds of problems using innovative technology. The possibility does exist that robots could take over in the classroom, but would that really be for the best? It would be a lot to ask for robots to get to know kids over the course of a school year and be available to them for help with not only school work, but other problems they might be having, too. Sounds like it could be possible, but not the best idea—what do you think?
Robotics Competitions Fuel STEM for Students
Robotics competitions are becoming wildly popular extracurricular STEM activities for curious students in junior high as well as high school. Designed to facilitate collaboration and foster a real working knowledge of robotics in technology, these competitions are a brilliant way for today’s students to masterfully build STEM skills. Many of the competitions even utilize a mentor format, meaning that the students involved each have somebody available to guide them directly. With the support of STEM mentors and inspiration from each other, robotics programs help spark a splash of self-confidence in students as well as hone their communication and leadership skills at the same time.
For students, robotics competitions serve as a way of teaching the basics of building, maintaining and even coding a functional robot. In the community, however, robotics competitions do much more than that. While competition directly impacts the students taking part, it also is simultaneously setting the table for kids who, in just a few years, will be ready to compete themselves. Many robotics clubs thrive on sparking interest and raising awareness in an effort to attract more kids to STEM education. And, of course, the ultimate goal is to better prepare them for the 21st century STEM-focused workforce by truly putting into practice all that they are learning in the classroom.
The rising popularity in competitions has led to a steadily increasing number of competitions being held each year. It’s also resulted in competitions in many more locations, whereas before, most students would have to spend a lot of money to drive a few hours to get to the competition before it became a part of their local community. Robotics programs are a STEAM-y way to reach more students and get them engaged in hobbies that will set them up for success. Any and all skill levels are welcome and there is no experience requirement—so get involved and see how awesome it is to be a part of a future-shaping robotics club!
So, you Want to Start a Robotics Club?
Well, of course you do after reading all that! From creation to operation and, most importantly, application, robotics endeavors are a phenomenal way to amplify in-class or extracurricular STEM knowledge. Not only are self-made robotic devices fascinating to curious students, they are able to help them learn in much more engaging ways from providing sensory feedback to helping familiarize kids with computer systems. Afterschool robotics clubs are a near perfect way to enhance the STEM concepts that kids are learning about in class. They help hone the very traits 21st century students need when you think about it: creativity, problem solving, design, technology, and teamwork. It seems like every school should have one of these things!
It’s in these voluntary robotics clubs that students begin to make the connection between hands-on skill development and real-world success and start to carry this attention to detail over into their other classes. Robotics clubs are great in the sense that they supplement the in-class instruction students are receiving. With that being the case, teachers simply need to decide exactly what their goals are and align the process of creating the clubs with these objectives. Whatever the core STEM concepts are, there’s a way to teach them with robotics. Many of the educational robots on the market today are completely user friendly and let the kids select the programming language. This advantage should not go unnoticed or understated as the whole essence of learning with robotics is to make learning come alive in an engaging yet simple way.
Before teachers implement their awesome new robotics programs, it’s usually useful to take some time and do a bit of informal research on how other teachers have incorporated robotics in the past. You might even be surprised to find out that they actually have suggestions for placing robotics lessons right in the curriculum! This will also help teachers assess any difficulties they might encounter along the way, such as finicky computer systems. When researched properly, cost should stay minimal—especially with the wide range of discounted robotics solutions available. If you ask me, though, price is not the biggest factor when it comes to robotics clubs; it’s procuring tools that will actually teach kids something—not just ease the financial burden.
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