Date: Nov 11, 2018
The Lab @ Katong V
Jay Jay and Kay Kay has started their new Python programming journey using Raspberry Pi at The Lab @ Katong V since November this year.
The Teacher Assistant
Today, The Lab asked Jay Jay if he wanted to take part in teaching the first timer programmers at the The Lab, and of course, he say YES!
Jay Jay gladly take up the challenge and teach the first timer student (in their Free 2-hours Trial class) how to program the robots.
For younger students, The Lab uses Lego Mindstorms robots to teach them. The easy drag and drop interface, talks to the robots and perform the task.
For a more advanced students like Kay Kay, they will be using Raspberry Pi + Blockly (drag and drop) Python to teach them.
As for Jay Jay, he is older, and he will need to program in Python languages (in normal text programming in IDE environment) to interface with its Raspberry Pi robots.
According to The Lab, Jay Jay seems to have a natural talent to teach young kids. They explained that Jay Jay is using his child language to teach another child, and sometimes it is much more easier to understand, compared to the lesson taught by an adult instructor.
The kids listen to Jay Jay… hahahaha
To my understanding, Jay Jay has build that conveyer belt grabber robot (using Lego) within 30 minutes, and that robot was used as one of the curriculum for the older kids as well as the younger kids. The older kids need to build the same robot, and those new students uses about 1.5 hours to build. As for the younger kid such as in this video, they just need to program the robot to grab the cargo and drop it.
As you can see, the kids were very happy and they claps their hand when they managed to make their robot do the task there were asked to program.
Oh ya, about that Conveyer belt grabber. Jay Jay has used the Lego Design Tool to design and build it. And he has build it back on Oct 19.
And he is happy that this Conveyer belt grabber is used in the Trial Class today.
Oh ya, my young Kay Kay also tag along to try his best to be a teacher assistant too.
He was assigned to guide another young student too. So, he is there to give his assistant whenever the student needs it.
I choose The Lab @ Katong V for my kids because:
- Some of the ex-instructors and ex-staffs from DaVinci now works here.
- The Lab partner with local robotics experts and professors from local university to design their course that follows closely the STEM guidelines from MOE.
- The Lab teaches Python. Using Blockly or IDE. I want Jay Jay to learn how to type his Python codes instead of drag and drop. 🙂
- The Lab uses Raspberry Pi and Grove sensors to teach the students. They will eventually build the robot using Raspberry Pi.
- Of course, they also have Lego Mindstorms for younger kids.
- Again, very importantly, I pay for a monthly fee, but I can sent my kids to The Lab for about as many as 25 days a month (Monday is rest day) and up to 2-hours each day. That means, you can go there 4 days a month or 24-25 days a month. Depend on your timing to sent your kids there.
I think, Raspberry Pi with the Grove sensors are very practical way to learn robotics and programming.
And of course, it is very cheap too. Much cheaper to own a LEGO MindStorm.
Check out what Jay Jay has build using Lego MindStorm. This is a Caltapult that has a Gyro sensor. When you pull the Caltapult back, the Gyro sensor will sent the angle info to the screen of MindStorm. So, you know when you pull to a certain angle, it has the maximum firing distant.
See, it is all about math, science and fun!
About The Lab
Here is the brochures for The Lab.
You can call them up to arrange a free trial class. So to let your kids to experience the learning process, and see if your kids likes to program robots or not.
I know my kids likes it.
If you see a kid take out the Raspberry Pi and program something at home, that means he likes to program.
And of course, text based programming is also fun too.
If you gave them the chance to learn, they sure likes it.
I like their tag line. Learning Without Boundaries.
