Robotics prepare students for the competitive workforce of tomorrow. By learning how to code robots, students of all ages, even the ones who are starting 3rd grade, can discover if their aptitudes and interests correspond to those skills that will define the job market of the future, like programming, science technology or engineering.
Working with robots helps stimulate students to develop their engineering knowledge and intuition and also to emphasize the solution-based learning through the integration and application of their technical skills. Some of the abilities developed when working with educational robots are: strategic problem-solving, engineering, computational thinking, programming, logical and analytical reasoning; abilities that are already fundamental when preparing for a job in a lot of professional areas.
Educational robotics strengthen and support students’ skills deepening their STEM related knowledge through the design, assembly, coding and operation of robots. Students of all ages enjoy discovering Fable especially because they find it funny and engaging to have the freedom of interacting directly with all processes and procedures involved in creating and operating a robot.
In fact, students might find programming too difficult and boring when learned through the “traditional” abstract method. Furthermore, by having to create, code and control a physical robot, students learn through trial and error what robots can and can’t do with an immediate experience and understanding.
Did you know that several schools all over the world have already started to use Fable robot in the classroom?
Keble Prep School in the UK is one of Fable’s first permanent homes away from home. Karen Fleming is a middle school teacher at the Keble Preparatory School in North London. She teaches computer science and technology and is the director of digital learning, working with other teachers to incorporate technology into their lessons: “We ordered the trial Fable kit to see if it would be easy to include it into our curriculum. We had been wanting to find a way to start robotics with our Y7 and Y8ʼs and Fable appealed to us.
We were thrilled when it arrived and we found it easy to get started. It was really well made and easy to put together. We also loved the blocky editor and found it easy to navigate round. It complimented the other work on blockly we had been doing. We set it up and got a few pupils to try it out. They got Fable to monitor movement, then wave and smile. The best thing though was the discussion between the pupils. The problem solving and thinking skills were a joy to witness. We loved it so much we ordered a class set and havenʼt looked back.”
Educational Robotics allows students to learn in different ways STEM disciplines, with the objective to improve students’ skills and attitudes regarding the analysis and operation of robots. Robotics in the classroom has several ways to impact traditional education:
1. Motivation
Let’s face it, robots are fun! Students love to build and program robots if they are allowed to be creative and work on problems that they find interesting. Some students might want to build a robot to clean their room, and other students may want to build a robot to play with their Canary bird while they are at school.
2. Perseverance
Students need to learn that failure is not an option! Just kidding, failures are great because they provide the student with much needed feedback on how well they understand the problem and how well their solution works.
3. Feedback
When developing a specific robot, it is often obvious how well it works. Every time the code is executed the robot will move and thereby give immediate feedback to the student. Fast iterations on a design is the key to efficient learning.
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