MR News | Educational robotics workshops for girls and boys are growing in all fields

The robotics workshops integrate the educational offers promoted by the municipality, with the aim that the boys and girls who participate can show their ingenuity and ingenuity for free.

At each meeting, attending boys and girls aged seven to twelve have a specific challenge to solve, putting their creativity and imagination into play in constructing a robot that serves to solve a specific problem.

After the robot is built, the boys and girls program the movements and actions to fulfill the class objective. Its implementation allows robots to be used as platforms for learning concepts belonging to disciplines such as mathematics, physics, programming and electronics. The dynamic consists of bi-monthly seminars and weekly classes of one and a half hours.

Robotics is one of the most applied tools for the early inclusion of digital skills in girls and boys, given its practicality for transmitting and assimilating knowledge and promoting the development of soft skills related to creative and innovative potential, teamwork and peaceful conflict resolution.

The work scheme of these workshops is organized around the assembly and programming of robots, responding to planning that includes stages of observation, design, creation and experimentation.

In the last class, the Director of Citizen Innovation of the Secretariat for Modernization and Proximity, Leandro Justo, explained: “Educational workshops on robotics are one of the proposals that the Digital Stations program hosts and it is one of the proposals that works the most in the proposal for early inclusion of technology by children. We use a kind of pedagogy that works with robots as a platform to incorporate different concepts in a playful way.”

And he added: “In the first hour of the workshop, developments are made with blocks that are connected to motors, rollers, with gears, and in the last half hour, these robots are built to perform certain actions, with sensors of various types, if assembled cars, races are held, for example. The workshops are designed for work in pairs, with ten pairs, that is, twenty boys per workshop. And the idea is to always be able to keep scaling the offering.”

“These are workshops designed so that children do not need prior knowledge, the software used is very intuitive, with drawings, because the idea is to include some knowledge in a playful way. The children are supported by three teachers, in many cases We have the support of the internship program of the University of Technology, which consists of students from different engineering fields and who do it with great vocation. In addition, other skills are encouraged, such as creativity, teamwork, peaceful conflict resolution, and working together . educational robotics,” he concluded.

Thiago is a middle child educator at Punto Cuidar and participates as a teacher in the robotics workshop. “Different robot designs are being made and for example they learned to make a bee using a motion sensor. And it’s a new experience for middle school kids. The boys come very excited and love it. They share and work on together, they all really like to be in a group, they don’t like to work alone,” he said.

From first person

María José lives in the West neighborhood and enrolled her son Ciro and Azul in the robotics workshop. “It’s eight in the morning and they’re already asking me when they’re going to the workshop. They really like it. They tell me when they’re making robots and that last week they made a bee for example. I can see they’re learning and that’s why I signed them up, they’re also making new friends.”

Enzo is ten years old and loves to make robots. “I made a helicopter and it was very difficult, it cost us a lot. I like to come because we use computers and I come to have fun,” he said.

His friend, seven-year-old Constantino, also proudly shows off the helicopter they built together. “I come here to have fun and I came to make this robot with my friend,” Constantino said very happily.

On the other hand, Janet loves the workshop because she has fun and likes to make new friends. “I made a robot and it was really hard, but it’s a lot of fun.” Also, Azul is ten years old, and she and her two friends made a bee that has a sensor that allows her to move. The friends showed the bee they had made with great pride.

Last seminars of the year

Enrollment is open for the 7-12-year-old boys and girls robotics education workshops in the Northwest Territories; west; Southwest and South, which are expected to launch in the second half of October.

To register, go to the municipality’s website (www.rosario.gob.ar) and fill out the appropriate form.

Digital stations

The Digital Stations aim to generate from basic digital skills in the community to the training of human resources in technical and technological fields for the production and use of digital content, applications and software development that contribute to the social and economic development of the community population and the improvement of the quality of life of every man and woman of Rosario.

Currently, the municipality has four spaces in the regional municipal centers. They are synonymous with digital inclusion, education, access to technology and digital content and entertainment, among others.

Each of them has the technological infrastructure to guarantee access to ICT and to provide specific courses and training aimed at all residents, based on the proposals of the different secretariats of the municipality.