STEM Education: Can We Really Bring Robotics into the General Education Classroom? | @MeetEdison

In this episode of the TechEducator Podcast, we discuss how any teacher, no matter what subject or grade level can bring robotics into their curriculum. Our guests tonight are from Microbric, the creators of the Edison Robots and from Sphero, the creators of the Sphero and BB-8 Robot.
Topics Discussed
- Robots make abstract concepts concrete
- Robots outside of STEM classes
- The power of multiple robots
About Sphero
Sphero began the connected play revolution in 2010 by creating something unlike anything – and we never stopped. We fuse robotic and digital technology into immersive entertainment experiences that ignite imagination and defy expectation. Optimized by data and powered by fun, these ever-evolving experiences are changing the way the world thinks about play.
Links of Interest
About Edison Robots
In 2014, with only a tiny team based in South Australia, Microbric launched the Edison robot with a bang. The wildly successful Kickstarter campaign hit 524% funding and the popularity of Edison has only grown from there. The highly versatile and easy-to-use robot is now distributed globally and can be found in schools in more than 50 countries around the world.
Microbric’s vision for the Edison robot is to create an affordable, comprehensive STEM teaching resource for coding and robotics education for students in years 3 – 9. To support this vision, users of Edison have access to free educational resources and programming apps.
The Edison robot can be programmed multiple ways: using pre-set barcodes, EdWare, EdPy and now, EdBlocks.
EdBlocks, the newest programming language for Edison robots, is a fully icon-based language that is super easy to use. A drag-and-drop block-based system, EdBlocks is intuitive and fun, even for younger users. Perfect for introducing anyone to programming, EdBlocks is ideal for students aged 8 to 12 years old.
Students can then take their programming further with EdWare, a hybrid graphical language, and EdPy, a highly versatile text-based programming language based on Python.
Best of all? Access to all programming languages and associated teaching resources is absolutely free.
Learn more at www.meetedison.com
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