At our ultramodern training facility at Nkoranza, Bono East of Ghana, we run after-school STEM class as a co-curricular activity. We hosted a group of incredible children from the Greener Pastures Educational Complex, Nkoranza on December 1st, and we took them through series of activities from STEM sensitization to drone piloting.
What is a robot? – our facilitator asked the kids. From the reaction we had, we came to a realization that they just had a little idea of what unequivocally a robot is. The training needs assessment started right then to help in delivering the best to them.
Subsequently, through our facilitator’s direction, they unboxed Makeblock’s mbot. Our facilitator then took the understudies through the names of the different parts and their uses. When they were familiar with the terms and use of the various parts, they were then taken through how to bring every one of the lifeless parts together to build the mbot. Each kid present at the center had the potential chance to build a robot.
The kids learned to use the remote control and the Makeblock program to operate the built-in mbot. They were so captivated when they figured out how to control the robot with voice commands. The facilitator taught the students how to use block codes to make the robot perform some basic tasks such as line following and obstacle detection. They also learned how to write simple block codes to measure temperature using the thermometer sensor.
Again, they had the chance to explore the many functionalities of the Codrone Edu drone with its controller and learnt by practising the basics to drone piloting.
At the end of the training, we were convinced of the joy we brought to our kids not just because of their smiles but also their practical assessment.
