Who needs robots in the classroom?

Programming and robotics seem to be the new, hip thing in today’s classroom. STEM concepts are being taught from elementary school, sometimes alongside core topics like English and Math. But why is teaching STEM topics to young kids so popular? How useful could it possibly be? (It’s not like the average person interacts with robots all day) 

I’ll take you through my morning just to show you how silly this fad is!

7am

First things first, I got up and brushed my teeth. My toothpaste tube was nearly empty, so I pulled out my phone and ordered a new one on Amazon with one click.

Computational Thinking in your Classroom

Computational thinking is a problem solving process that takes inspiration from coding and computer science to enhance the way we analyze problems and design solutions. It’s been getting a lot of buzz lately at the university level, but the underlying concepts can be integrated into any classroom. Try some of these methods out in your own lesson plans to help your students think computationally:

NAO teaches communication and collaboration to students with Autism

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by three main symptoms:

Breaking the habit of too much screen in school by using physical devices

There is no shortage of articles and think-pieces on the evils of “screen-time”.Everyone from the National Public Radio to Psychology Today are bemoaning the negative impact of our dependence on screen-based entertainment and utilities. Here at RobotLAB, we don’t dispute the research.  

Blockly VS Scratch: What’s best for me?

Learning to code can sometimes seem overwhelming.  I remember when I was making the leap from learning vocabulary and syntax to creating an entire program I experienced some writers block.  I had all the tools I needed, but I didn’t know where to begin. 

Enter Scratch and Blockly: two programming environments that use a graphical interface of interlocking blocks to make coding easier for new programmers.