Achieving Technology Curricular Goals Through a Robotics Learning Center

Robotics board came for pre-and elementary school students

The new Finnish Curriculum Reform that will take place next fall requires teachers to teach "coding" already in the first grade.  The reform calls for developing mathematical skills by performing tasks, playing games, or using senses in different learning environments. Robotics has been found to be an ideal tool to accomplish this, all the way from preschool through high school. 

Finnish Curriculum Reform

This can be achieved by

1.    •Getting to to know the technology around you by exploring your own solutions.  

2.     •Supporting mathematical thinking in different learning environments.

3.     •Allowing students to explore and make observations from the surroundings.

4.     •Creating the delight of learning and discovery.

5.     •Encouraging students to ask questions and explaining the results in group setting.

6.     •Requiring students to compare, classify, and organize information based on information gathered by measurements or observations.  

7.     •Encouraging students to discover solutions and conclusions to everyday problems. 

8.     •Paying attention to multi-performing equipment. The equipment must be able to allow students to classify and compare in order to find patterns.

9.     •Encouraging students to find solutions and reasons to problems.  This can be accomplished through games, outdoor play, stories, and information technology.   
Learning the relationship between reason and consequence.

The new curriculum also requires:

1.      Information technology must be part of every school and home. 

2.     Teaching must allow students to get familiar with information technology equipment, services and  games. 

3.     Children must be able to explore and produce themselves ideas and creative solutions to technology. 

4.     The primary education must enhance, in addition to what is learned at home, the knowledge of information technology that is equal to everyone.

Dash programmable robot dancing

Teachers’ task is to determine how to accomplish all this.  That’s why all the universities and many other institutions have created learning centers where teachers find numerous solutions to accomplish all this. Today I visited Tikkurila library that had set an all-day robotics event for teachers and children to learn and to incorporate activities to mathematic and technology curriculum.  

Tikkurila is a city just half an hour drive from the Center of Helsinki and is very dedicated to student learning. I took the train to the city and walked to the library that was just one kilometer away from the station.  I observed the kids playing with robots and talked to teachers in the city schools.  They were all thankful for the city to provide them new learning opportunities. 

The first robotics tool I observed was Blue bot. It was aimed for preschoolers and 1-3 graders.

It was a simple $100 robot that was programmable.  The student teachers who introduced this showed how to program it.  This was appropriate level of coding for little kids and easy to learn. 

There was also a presentation on 3D printed human size robots.  I learned about this free software.  InMoov was a personal project for Gael Langevin, a French sculptor.

He initiated it in January 2012 as the first Open Source prosthetic hand. This led to other life-sized projects like Bionico, E-Nable, and many others. 

Life-Size Robot Talking

“InMoov is the first Open Source 3D printed life-size robot.
Replicable on any home 3D printer with a 12x12x12cm area, it is conceived as a development platform for Universities, Laboratories, Hobbyist, but first of all for Makers. It’s concept, based on sharing and community, gives him the honor to be reproduced for countless projects throughout the world”.  http://inmoov.fr