CHOP's new robot sings, dances and even recognizes patients' faces

Philadelphia hospital debuts new robot designed to engage, educate young patients

JOHN KOPP/PHILLYVOICE Saaliha, a 7-year-old patient at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, greets NAO, the hospital's new interactive robot.

6 Ways We Kill Students’ Motivation

“What can we do to motivate our students who need it the most?” my principal recently asked. 

As a teacher, I, of course, had many thoughts. But those thoughts are just that: mine. So I asked my principal a simple question: Why don’t we ask the students?

So we did.

Kids Learn Better When Playing with Robots

For many students, math and science have always been boring subjects, too bogged down with technical details to ever be fun or exciting. Teachers have long tried a variety of strategies to get students excited about STEM. It turns out, one of the best ways to get kids pumped about STEM is through the use of robots.

Boosting Your Child's STEM Skills With Robotics

"STEM" is an important educational topic sweeping through homes and schools across the world.  STEM is an acronym representing the huge push to teach and involve students in science, technology, engineering, and math. Due to struggling test scores and low enthusiasm in many schools, both parents and teachers are striving to find new and better ways to create greater interest in these critical learning topics.

These classroom subjects give our children the keys to a booming future in one of these science-driven fields. Although there are many ways to help encourage a STEM education, robotics education programs are allowing children as young as 6 to learn valuable problem-solving STEM skills. 

DOBOT Global Finals of Robotics Competitions Began at the World Robot Conference 2019 in Beijing!

The Global Finals of DOBOT Intelligent Manufacturing Challenge 2019 and Robot Industrial Robot Competition 2019 began at the World Robot Conference 2019 in Beijing. 

Over 580 primary, middle school and university students from 20 cities, 5 countries battled 15 regional rounds in the past 3 months, with only 130 teams in total being granted the honorable entry to the 2019 DOBOT Final in Beijing Etrong International Exhibition & Convention Center.

Goooal! These are the RoboCup Humanoid League Winners!

Robotics teams and experts competed on Sydney for the RoboCup 2019, aiming to claim the World Champion title.

Two local universities came out with first place honours, University of Sydney (USYD) and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), in the Soccer Simulation 2D League and the Social Robot Standard Platform League, respectively.

The Power of Storytelling in the Classroom: 5 Ways It Can Be a Great Help

People say unbelievable things all the time and often we may wish they were true. These stories touch our imagination, as we feel ourselves playing a role in the story in both time and place. More often than not, they are make believe and are told to attract the audience, whether it's a small group of friends or family or a larger group such as a school classroom or even a conference attended by the business community.

When it comes to teaching in the classroom, research shows that children tend to retain more knowledge when they can connect it with a classroom activity. One of the most common classroom activities is storytelling. Children love listening to their teachers telling stories. While they listen, they begin to focus and follow the story through until its end.

Combine Maker Activities and STEM Lessons

You may be familiar with maker spaces. In one form or another, hands-on teaching has always involved kids in “making.” Today’s new focus on maker spaces is taking making to a whole new level.

Visualize a space filled with an assortment of materials and tools where people explore ideas together, create, and invent. Now think of such a space existing in a school – a space where students can go to imagine, investigate, figure things out, and design prototypes. 

Personally, I like to think of maker spaces as spots that fuel curiosity-driven learning – engaging spaces that nurture your students’ curiosity and creativity. Just think how productive your STEM lessons would be if they were driven by student curiosity!

An Education For The 21st Century Means Teaching Coding In Schools

There is merit in school students learning coding. We live in a digital world where computer programs underlie everything from business, marketing, aviation, science and medicine, to name several disciplines. During a recent presentation at a radio station, one of the hosts said that IT would have been better background for his career in radio than journalism.

Being introduced to coding gives students an appreciation of what can be built with technology. We are surrounded by devices controlled by computers. Understanding how they work, and imagining new devices and services, are enhanced by understanding coding.

What makes a STEM teacher?

Developing identities of STEM teachers at emerging STEM schools

What kind of picture of a STEM teacher do you have? El Nagdi and colleagues attempted to answer this question by conducting a study with participants of emerging STEM schools in the US, published in the International Journal of STEM Education. Since STEM schools are a recent initiative, a STEM teacher is a learning, developing and multi-disciplinary-oriented not yet defined kind of person.