by on 06/01/2022 4232
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Edu.Robot.Stem, Setapak Melawati an educational brand managed and distributed by One Stop Solutions has an interesting background. Established in 2008, it started out offering training services for adults. Kiddy123 talked to Madam Diana Pamela, whose family owns the company, to discover more about the demand for Stem as well as Robotics education in Malaysia.
It was discovered that Madam Diana’s eldest child, who was about nine years old back then, harboured an immense interest for the subject of Science, particularly Robotics. “This wasn’t a popular subject at the time, and we had problems trying to find him an extracurricular class which offered any of these programmes for children during that time,” she explained.
In 2013, she met a couple of individuals who had access to robotics products from Korea. They bounced the idea to her, suggesting that she bring in these products and start teaching other children too, apart from just her child. That idea sat really well with her, and in 2015 she did just that. The rest, as they say, is history.
Apart from running a centre which teaches kids robotics, let it be said here that Madam Diana, the company’s CEO, played quite an integral role from back then when she was also contracted to introduce and bring awareness on Robotics/Stem education to schools all over the state of Perak. Her company’s brand, Edu.Robot.Stem is still actively providing its programmes and services to schools as after school co-curricular programmes, whereby Madam Diana is the Lead Coach of these programmes.
So now, let’s get to the term ‘robotics’.
On this, Madam Diana agreed that many parents are still in need of more awareness on the subject, as many don’t have a clue of what it’s about. “Robotics is set to be a crucial part of all our lives, as it also plays a role in the 4th Industrial Revolution (Revolution 4.0). Programmes can now be set up to run automatically, without having to man or control them, which in turns saves time, manpower and resources. Plus, with the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in more and more areas of our lives, it is essential that children get adequate exposure to robotics education (or STEM education), to stay ahead of the times,” she explained patiently.
“Think about it - How is China, for example, able to sell products of quite decent quality, at ridiculously low prices? That’s because they fully utilise robotics in their factories, which means that production runs for 24-hours without needing much management, almost no human error, and without the need for taking breaks!” she continued, opening up our eyes to the importance and relevance of robotics in our current lives as well as our future. And of course, that was just one example.
Our industry, as pointed out by Madam Diana, needs the IR4, as increased interconnectivity and smart automation demands it. But unfortunately, there is still quite a gap between the industry and our education, which is why robotics and/or STEM education is now turning crucial. “The objective is to try and get more students interested in the subject of Science, particularly STEM education, and in doing so, hopefully we can narrow this gap.”
When kids hear the word ‘robot’ they immediately connect it to fun and games. Which isn’t too far from the truth, actually, but what they may not realise is, they’re actually learning a whole lot more than they’re playing, without even realising it!
In these classes provided by Edu.Robot.Stem, children get to build, first and foremost, commendable problem-solving skills - it is the core of robotics. “In all our programmes, whether the kids are building, designing, coding, they will encounter problems to be solved. We will not give them the answer. Instead, we’ll let them figure it out themselves. After they have solved a problem, we will also suggest a few other solutions for them, apart from the ones which they had come up with by themselves. This way, we allow them to experiment with their ideas and expand their creativity as they learn, focus, build their motor skills, practice patience, etc. The benefits are many,” Madam Diana explained.
As they venture deeper into creating, building and coding in robotics, they will also be required to perform presentations of their work and share their results with their peers. There are both solo projects as well as group projects to be part of, not to mention competitions both national and international, to participate in. “Whether or not they win anything, students always come back from competitions having learned something, useful and/or important, which will help them in their thinking and problem solving skills.”
The programmes at Edu.Robot.Stem include Coding Games & Comic (for age 5 and above); Coding Robotic (age 5 and above); Coding with Tinkercad (for age 8 and above); Coding Python (age 10 and above); Coding Drone (age 10 and above); and Coding Mobile Apps (age 10 and above), among other stimulating programmes.
The future is robotics, as explained by Madam Diana. “It is the direction technology is heading, and our younger generation, via their education, has to catch up. What we’re attempting is to get them more interested in STEM subjects - Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, using robotics as a tool. “Coding, for example, is already widely being used across all industries, from farming, and oil & gas, to manufacturing and just about everything else. “Soon, job seekers will have to possess these talents to be hired by any industry, hence we have to acknowledge its significance in children’s education. Our schools, and even public kindergartens are beginning to implement it into their syllabus via the STEM and STEAM education. We at Edu.Robot.Stem hope to enhance their experience and offer them an enjoyable learning journey with our specially designed robotics programmes,” Madam Diana concluded.
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