Noospherean October celebrated another event: the VEX RoboWeek STEM course. During the last week of the month, children and teenagers between the ages of 6 and12 learned the basics of programming and designing robots. A total of 25 young inventors attended the course. Noosphere organized the Meet and Code initiative.
VEX RoboWeek lasted from October 24 to 27 – during the European Code Week. Participants studied robotics for four days using the VEX 123 Education and VEX GO constructors.
Children from 6-8 years old worked with the VEX 123 Education constructors, as they were designed specifically for teaching children. Tasks for mini-engineers were designed so that learning took place in the most interesting and fun way. This younger group of the STEM course created a maze, programmed a robot to navigate it, and created a dancing robot.
The older children, ages 9 through 12, worked with VEX GO. The participants assembled a basic model of the constructor and organized actual robot speed races. Overall, the VEX RoboWeek program was designed so that children can not only learn new things but also distract themselves from the current events surrounding them.
“I liked building robots and interacting with other children the most”, – shares course participant Yaroslav Bindyugin.
“The course turned out to be very useful. His eyes are bright and his smile shines. Socialization, new experiences, good feelings. This is so valuable, especially during the war,” added his mother.
One of the most exciting tasks was creating a spirograph robot that draws spiral patterns. Using this unusual equipment, VEX RoboWeek participants decorated postcards that we delivered to the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and TD. Each of the postcards has a unique drawing and a kind message from the children to the defenders: “Thank you for a peaceful day and the opportunity to learn something new.”
The mentors of the Noosphere Engineering School helped to “tame” the robots. They oversaw the course participants at every stage: from theory to practical tasks.
VEX RoboWeek added to our treasure trove of STEM activities and left good memories for both the little engineers and us as organizers. We believe there will be more!
“Our big dream is not only to help children overcome the effects of stress, involving them in interesting and useful learning, but also to demonstrate to the world that Ukrainians are talented in everything. Participants from Ukraine have already become winners and prize-winners of international robotics competitions. But not in VEX robotics, we are not very familiar with this direction. Therefore, with this initiative, we also introduce young Ukrainian inventors to the best practices in the field,” commented Olga Zima, Head of social projects at Noosphere.
