Robotics at primary school – what do the classes look like and how to prepare a robotics lab at school?

Robotics at primary school is an increasingly widespread form of classes. In its current form, it is mainly associated with technical and information technology classes. However, as Skriware, we want to prove that robotics classes are not just about programming! By equipping the robotics lab with SkriBots, a school gains the potential to educate students from the stage of building a robot, plugging in electronic components and ultimately programming. At Skriware Academy, we also suggest ideas for using robots for other school subjects.

What is robotics and when to start learning it?

Robotics is a field that integrates the science of programming, electronics, and mechanics. With it, we explore the fundamentals behind how robots work and learn how to build functional robots. With the simplest tools we can start learning robotics even at preschool age, although it is worth introducing elements of robotics at primary school when it supports the understanding of school issues.

What form does teaching robotics take at primary school?

Most often, robotics at school is based on simple kits combining motors and sensors with modular moving building blocks. During the activity, students build a robot to operate in a certain way and program it. It depends on their proficiency level, whether they follow instructions, or pursue their own design. The task is based on the use of appropriate gears – to power a desired mechanism with a rotational motion of the motor, and the appropriate programming of the robot and its sensors. Once the basic programming of the robot is learnt, it can also be used in other school subjects, such as early childhood education, mathematics, physics or Polish.

What equipment can help teach robotics at school?

To teach robotics an educational robot will of course be needed. By using a robot that we assemble ourselves, such as SkriBot, we gain the option of expanding and rebuilding the robot. The building blocks that come with SkriLab will make our robot freely evolve, depending on the function we invent for it. If we want to first create a prototype of a robot, then an on-line tool available through Skrimarket – Creator – will help us. Educational mats can also be used for teaching, such as the Skriware’s city mat, which will take the robot into the urban ecosystem, help understand coordinates, linear units, or types of angles.

What does learning robotics at school offer children for the future?

Have you tried to learn a new skill as an adult, such as skiing or skating? Surely you were looking at young children at the time who seemed fearless and confident in what they were doing? Well, the same is true for teaching the basics of robotics. The sooner children are exposed to such technology, the more freely they will combine robotics and programming related threads in the future. Mechanical interconnections, electronic wiring, but above all learning a foreign language like programming language will come naturally to them.

What skills do robotics classes develop at school?

Educational robots used in education can be broadly divided into two main groups – boxed robots and modular robots. Boxed robots are ready-made products for learning to program, ready to be used out of the box. However, such robots have a use limited to their programming and do not allow interference with the robot’s design.

Modular robots, apart from being used to teach programming, can also be used to develop fine motor skills, and learn the principles of mechanics. The need to assemble a robot before first use can be an additional difficulty, but for a student it is usually an attractive challenge, nonetheless. In addition, modular robots can be modified owing to their open design. Such a robot is, for example, the SkriBot.

Do the robotics basics need to be taught by someone with a computer science degree?

No. The current product options are available to any teacher who has the desire to learn the basics of programming and robotics. The so-called block programming is extremely simple. The free e-courses that explain how to assemble and program the SkriBot step-by-step with the free SkriApp mobile app can be found at Skriware Academy. With simple and effective tools based on modern technology, everyone can learn the basics of robotics and coding!

 What classes at school teach students the basics of robotics?

The basics of robotics at primary school can be used in many subjects, in fact, all you need to do is explore robots, learn the first steps of coding, and the inspiration will appear on its own. Robots can help with learning, for example, about coordinates, about speed, about the urban ecosystem, a robot can help us learn the component parts of a sentence, rotary motion. The only thing that confines us is our imagination.