Robotics prepares Jamaica’s children for the future, says Gore Foundation
THE GORE Family Foundation has invested $3 million to bring robotics to 300 basic school children in the Coporate Area.
These children will be among the youngest students ever to be exposed to robotics in Jamaica.
The Foundation manages 10 basic schools throughout the Corporate area where they look to expose children to opportunities including the benefits of various programmes and activities that they would never otherwise have access to. These activities include tennis, dancing, yoga, speech and drama, music, and now robotics.
When asked ‘why robotics?’, Christine Gore, the executive director of the Foundation said, “We are living in a world that is becoming increasingly technological with each passing day. Introducing the children in our basic schools to robotics at this age will play a critical role in equipping them with the skills and mindset necessary to adapt to and thrive in the 21st century.”
Some of the skills that the programme will help to foster in the children include problem-solving, creative and critical thinking, effective communication, teamwork, and learning science and math concepts in a practical way.
The Foundation has partnered with FIRST, a global robotics community currently in 110 countries, and Mona GeoInformatics Institute, to implement this robotics programme in its basic schools.
The programme will also involve capacity development and training for many teachers so that they are able to deliver lessons and facilitate activities related to robotics in the schools that they work in for years to come.
Kaleela Bromfield, principal of Vouch Sylvia Foote, one of the 10 basic schools that will benefit from this programme, aptly summarised her enthusiasm and the benefits to be seen in saying that “robotics will build children’s critical thinking, enhance their creative skills, expand their vocabularies and improve their communication skills by them having to explain the things that they have created to their facilitators”.