In our last article, we jotted down top schools for robotics engineering in India. While the schools we have discussed were for graduate students and professionals, learning robotics is no more limited to just them. Robotics is now also for kids.
In today’s technology-driven landscape, it has become imperative for kids to be industry-ready at an early age — this is another way to create a more industry-ready workforce for our country. Also, with robotics becoming a crucial part of various industrial applications and for society’s progress, learning robotics at a young age can be extremely beneficial.
Furthermore, experts believe that teaching robotics to kids can augment their problem solving and critical thinking capabilities and equip them with the necessary programming skills that are most demanded in the current industry 4.0. This, in turn, opens up a wide range of career opportunities for them in future. Thus, in this article, we will share the best eight resources for kids to learn robotics.
Also Read:
Arduino Projects & Robotics Tutorials
By RootSaid
About: Arduino Projects & Robotics Tutorials is a YouTube video tutorial that has been designed for kids as well as beginners. These video tutorial series consist of nine chapters that will focus on the basics of robotics, different parts of robots, its processing units, and electronics behind it. This tutorial also covers a few DIY hobby projects for kids. With this tutorial, one can build their running beginner robots, with knowledge on robot chassis, battery operation, microcontroller, and everything needed to make a robot. Additionally, RootSaid also offers video tutorials on coding for beginners and robotics for beginners to help kids pick up knowledge on basic robotics at an early age.
Check out the video tutorial here.
Robotics for Kids – Level 1
By STEMpedia
About: A free online course, Robotics for Kids – Level 1 is a middle school STEM robotics curriculum designed by industry experts for teaching hands-on robotics to kids. This course teaches kids all about robotics from assembling basic mobile robots to building a smartphone-enabled robot. Alongside this course offers some exciting DIY robotics projects for kids that will help them learn robotics at home, with parental guidance. With this course, kids will now be able to learn the basics of robotics along with an understanding of algorithms and can develop their attention to details and problem-solving capabilities at a very young age.
Know more about the course here.
Coding and Robotics for Kids
By Robolabz
About: ‘Coding and Robotics for Kids’ is a free robotics course for kids On YouTube, in Hindi. Presented by Robolabz that focuses on providing online and offline education, this course acts as a startup kit for kids to initiate their journey towards STEM and robotics. This course will well-equip the kids with basic programming and robotics concepts and do not require any hardware or other materials for start learning. This course can even be included in the school curriculum for kids to pick up complex subjects like robotics programming and mathematics at an early age.
Know more about it here.
Robotics for School Students
By Coding Blocks Junior
About: Robotics for School Students is a 60-minute free live-streaming YouTube video series that focuses mainly on providing a hands-on building and learning robotics for kids. Started during the pandemic lockdown, this video series is a certified course which will give the kids a certificate at the end of this course, if all the assignments are completed. This video course streams two times a week and talks about the fundamentals of robotics and focuses on building robots and programming knowledge required for robotics.
Check out the video series here.
Also Read: 8 Online Games That Can Teach Kids Data Science Amid This Lockdown
Begin Robotics
By Future Learn
About: This free online course is offered by Future Learn, in collaboration with The University of Reading, a university based-out of the UK that focuses on teaching, research and enterprise. Part of the Study UK Campaign, this course focuses on teaching robotics to kids by exploring the history, anatomy and intelligence of robots along with building them with exciting simulations. This four-week course starts from introduction to robotics and robot anatomy and then follows through cybernetics and control, and understanding robot behaviours. With only three hours of weekly study, this course claims to equip robotics-savvy kids with a fundamental understanding of this complex field at an early age.
Know more about it here.
Wonder for Dash & Dot Robots
By Wonder Workshop
About: Amid other online resources like websites and video tutorials, one mobile application that has been in the spotlight is ‘Wonder for Dash & Dot Robots.’ Created by Wonder Workshop, a California-based robotics company, this mobile app teaches robotics to kids in a delightful way like finger painting. It acts as a coding tool that lets kids of 8+ years have fun with robotics, all on their own. The app comes with 300+ challenges that teach kids about robotics programming as well as building robots. With this mobile app, kids can build their robots, update them with different mechanisms, play challenges and test their simulations. This application claims to provide an open-ended play and learning experience for kids to develop problem-solving capabilities at a young age.
You can download the app here.
COVID-19 Relief Free Online Courses
By Techy Kids
About: While lockdown was making kids lazy and restless, Techy Kids, an online educational platform for kids, came up with a set of COVID-19 Relief Free Online Courses to help tech-savvy kids continue their learning at home during this time. This set of courses claim to provide hands-on learning on complex subjects in robotics. Starting from Intro to Robotics with Thymio Simulator to modelling your ideas in Tinkercad Course these programmes teach kids about sensors, robotics and visual programming. Techy Kids advises kids to initiate their journey with its intro course before taking up these complex robotics courses for a better experience.
Know more about it here.
Easy Robotics Projects for Kids
By ResearchParent
About: Along with web courses, video tutorials and mobile applications, another resource that can help kids learn robotics at an early age are the DIY projects. One such offer is from a website — ResearchParent — by a research scientist that shared Easy Robotics Projects for Kids that can be leveraged to understand robotics, with the help of parental guidance. Starting from homemade spinning brush bot to building a simple homemade robot car, these projects are fun and are specially built for kids as well as beginners.
Check out the projects here.
