STEM experiences can help children thrive in so many ways and teachers are always finding new ideas for improving them. One of the most popular options, of course, is through enrichment programs. The benefits of STEM learning are great but they’re often capped in the classroom, meaning that more school leaders are encouraging STEM participation outside school.
Despite this prominent presence in the real world and elements of STEM in so many of today’s most lucrative careers, not every K–12 student pursues it. More importantly, many students lose almost all interest in STEM before they even reach middle school. So, in a lot of cases, educators have to be proactive to reach kids while they're in the K–5 grades. So, how can they?
When teaching STEAM and coding skills with the Edison Robot, its unique features make it super popular among today's teachers. This starts with its compact size, which helps to make the Edison a true 1:1 STEM solution in many cases. Some say it's shaped like a brick but it's also very dense and tough, which makes it a strong option for graphical or text coding lessons.
Particularly since the pandemic began, educational leaders and classroom teachers have had to rethink a lot of their instructional strategies. And, one of the biggest focus areas has been around SEL and ensuring all students feel comfortable expressing their thoughts among their peers—something that's done a lot to bring conversations about empathy into the classroom.
As learning initiatives evolve and adapt to better serve students in the 21st century or, in recent years, better allow for productive learning experiences from anywhere, rest assured we’re always doing our best to gauge how we can help. We’ve even created a bunch of useful content for school leaders, classroom teachers, librarians, and various education professionals.
Although the pandemic caused setbacks in SEL and communication skills, students are often using EdTech to revitalize some of that lost learning. By working as teams to build a circuit or practicing conversations with robots, students foster communication skills that can prepare them for their future. And, they can even communicate in alternative ways through art or music.
In schools, AR tools help foster unique and strong learning experiences for students of all ages. In fact, its versatility offers teachers so much potential solely in terms of amplifying engagement. Plus, the variety of avenues they have for using augmented reality help make it viable in almost any subject, offering the chance to educate students in new and affordable ways.
It has now been slightly over three years since the pandemic first shook up the education world. Beyond initial struggles with administering emergency instruction and too many parents worrying about kids losing academic and social development, another key factor emerged. We knew there was a big digital divide among our students, but didn't realize how bad it really was.
There truly is an endless number of elements to computer science and, as time has gone on, educational robotics solutions have evolved to help our teachers illustrate so many key coding concepts with various avenues for students to develop these skills. So, while some are designed for EarlyEd students (as early as Pre–K), others are complex enough for high school.
There are typically two primary options for younger kids (or older students) to get started with coding: either physical tools or digital tools. Most of our expertise involves the physical coding tools, including educational robotics kits, circuitry solutions, or even programmable drones. Especially following the remote learning era, however, there are also strictly virtual platforms.
