Kids learn to crack the code

Eager children embrace robotics programme in the classroom

INDUSTRIAL psychologist Christina Clucas brought Werner Venter’s robotics programme, Edro, to underprivileged South African schools, after recognising that state schools in the

US, Australia, India, the UK and elsewhere all taught robotics.

In South Africa we still teach Afrikaans – and while language, any language, is great – we’re neglecting pertinent areas of learning over traditional ones.

Clucas points out that former US president Barack Obama’s “Educate to Innovate” initiative, was driven by his belief that robotics could inspire young people to pursue careers in science and engineering.

At St Henry’s Marist College on the Berea in Durban, junior primary pupils are learning to programme robots, called Bee-Bots.

“By teaching our students the basics of robotics, we can open a whole new world to them and exciting opportunities that they wouldn’t have access to otherwise,” said Meredith Madgin, from the school’s academic advancement unit.

“The colourful, easyto-use, programmable robots called Bee-Bots have arrow keys which are used to move in the direction they have been programmed (by the children). They can be used to introduce, consolidate and revise the many concepts the children learn during their school day.”

Bee-Bots help children learn the basics of coding.

Children will learn sequencing, maths concepts, to make logical decisions and will begin to think in original and innovative ways. “This is an activity that allows our learners to become technologically advanced without using screen time,” added Madgin.

“While communication via the spoken and written word in the formative school years is vital, coding is also a form of communication that encourages children to be creative, solve problems, collaborate and engage with peers, and use critical thinking.”

The older learners were involved in Lego Robotics. The extramural “subject” managed by Robotics coach Sadhana Singh is linked to an international competition with 88 participating countries that involves building, designing and programming a robot to perform autonomous tasks on a game board.

“At high school level there is an Arduino Robotics Club (Arc) which is apart of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) curriculum. The students are learning to design electronic circuits from scratch and then they learn to write a programmes that will control the device that they have built,” explained computer literacy teacher Willem Voigt.

At RA Padayachee Primary in Ballito Grade 3 to 7 learners partake in an after-school STEM education programme, the AI Family Challenge where they get to explore machine learning, speech recognition, prediction models, autonomous vehicles and neural networks.

STE(A)M educational specialist, I-Innovate partnered with US developers, Curiosity Machine to bring the AI Family Challenge to South Africa with the aim of ultimately reaching 20 000 learners in disadvantaged communities across the world.

The curriculum is hands-on so that vital digital age skills such as computational thinking, electrical engineering, mobile computing and robotics can be developed while finding solutions to pressing community problems when it comes to food, agriculture, health, transportation and energy.

I-Innovate chief executive Trisha

Crookes said: “Participants understand how autonomous vehicles process different signals by building a system of circuits to simulate sensors and rapid decision-making. Over the course of the challenge, participants develop a learner mindset that gives them a lifelong ability to innovate and problemsolve.”

Having previously connected Cape Town schools to the International Space Station through the ExoLab programme, I-Innovate continues to work with partners to bring global thinking and digital age experiential learning to South African learners.

Sangari Education, a distributor for Veative’s educational virtual reality (VR) solutions, is placing innovative teaching and learning technologies in to schools. Chief executive Bez Sangari said: “Veative, using technologies such as 3D, VR, augmented reality and mixed reality, combines immersive and interactive education modules with plug-and-play VR headsets and controllers.”

The interactive modules cover physics, chemistry, biology, maths, educational tour and language learning. The kits include portable trolleys to keep headsets charged and safe when not in use while software assists educators with reports and analytics.

“As an example, students can experience an immersive module on photosynthesis with the help of a controller.

“They are able to go into the leaf and get a sense of how plants meet the requirements for photosynthesis. Such ‘look-see-do’ modes encourage them to explore, engage… and experiment.” – Washington Post