Education

Train Computational Thinking at an early age

Automation, in the broadest sense, is everywhere we look. In the future, we will rely more and more on technology to improve health care, transportation and logistics and the production of goods. Even if you don’t pursue a technical career, you’ll be better off with an understanding of the tools that drive our modern society.

RoboMind is meant to be a first introduction to automation and programming without prerequisites. Because many different exercises can be done, the difficulty level can be tailored to students of various age and levels. In primary education, pupils from 8 year old can get acquainted with writing commands to navigate the robot through its environment.

Features

Effective and motivating: RoboMind has proven to be an effective and motivating introduction to Computer Science and is used in more than 100 countries.
Simple to use, empowers teachers: Our educator-friendly platform includes everything you need to get your class up and running in minutes. No need for prior knowledge in the field. No need for extra courses or books.
Direct visual feedback: Create real programs and see the results immediately! This way you can incrementally improve your solution until Robo does what you want. Debugging was never easier.

Attractive learning environment, engaging, fun to do!: Our own experience and that of teachers all over the world learns that Robomind Academy will keep students captivated for the whole duration of the course.
Trusted by hundreds of schools: Every month RoboMind is used by tens of thousands of students from over 150 countries.
Especially e-safe for young children: No personal data is collected. No advertisements. See our special child-privacy paragraph for more details.

What you will learn

As students go through the courses, they get acquainted with the possibilities and impossibilities of programming and acquire insight into the power of logic. They will also gradually learn how a large problem can be solved by breaking it up into smaller pieces which can be solved more easily. This, of course, is a skill that comes in handy when doing other courses or studying other application areas.

With programming, you learn how to automate repetitive tasks, transform perceptions into actions and come up with ways to make smart decisions, even if in unknown situations. However, purely teaching how to program is not our main goal.

When teaching a natural language, you do not aim to train students to become writers. When teaching math, pupils do not need to end up as mathematicians. With programming it is the same. You do not need to become a programmer to benefit from understanding fundamental concepts. That is why we rather talk about Computational Thinking...

Suggested courses

Two fully self-containing courses are specifically developed for use on primary schools:

The aim is to gain insight into logic, automation, robotics and how a large problem can be solved by breaking it up into smaller pieces which can be solved more easily. These are main components of Computational Thinking which is an important skill students should have in order to be prepared for their future. By programming a virtual robot and in combination with the presentations included in the lessons they will gain direct insight into the operation of technical appliances as they are all around us.

Every lesson starts with a short multimedia presentation which highlights some aspects of what robots do and what their role is in society. In addition a brief explanation is given about the programming instructions used in the exercises and why these could be useful. Further quizzes are added to give more insight and make extra sure that everything is understood correctly. The introduction part takes about 15-20 minutes and can be given in the classroom (for example on a smartboard, Options: Show fullscreen) or independently by the student. The quizzes are certainly also fun to do with the whole class.

After the Basics 1&2 courses students can always continue with doing Community Challenges, a set of increasingly difficult challenges. Further they can use their fantasy with one of the many open challenges in the Map Chest or you can make your own challenges to go with theses maps.

Benefits for the teacher

Give high-quality education supported by an intelligent environment.

What you get ...

Fully developed programming courses for students from 8 years old: The Tracks in RoboMind Academy are self-contained, and include all the presentations, movies, quizzes and exercises the student needs to complete the tracks.
Clearly defined teaching goals: Students are guided through the courses and receive Computational Thinking diplomas upon successful completion. Each diploma makes explicit what specific set of skills has been acquired during the course.
Students progress through the lessons at their own pace.: The tracks contain extra challenges for fast students and extra content for students who may need some extra help.
Progress tracked per student: Students complete challenges, watch presentations and do quizzes. The progress of the student is monitored and stored in the cloud. This way a student can continue anytime anywhere and show his solutions to parents, teacher, etc. For the teacher this provides an instrument to monitor progress of the class and show who may perhaps need some extra attention.
Introduce relevant applications: Too many programming introductions use abstract and useless examples. We always connect challenges with concrete challenges so that it immediately becomes clear what the relevance of the exercises is with respect to the real world.
Interactive materials on smartboards: All presentations, quizzes, and programming challenges can be used on a smartboard.
Attractive learning environment: Our experience learns that RoboMind Academy will keep children captivated for the whole duration of the course.

... and you do not need these

Deep foreknowledge about the subject: The courses are self-contained so that the teacher can concentrate on mentoring the students.
An expensive IT infrastructure: RoboMind only requires an up-to-date browser with access to the Internet. All course materials can therefore be used on desktop computers, tablets and smart boards.
Big upfront investments: Do the RoboMind courses with the whole class and engage all students with Computer Science for the price of only one Lego robot.
Prerequisites or books: No need for prior knowledge in the field. No need for extra courses or books.