Educational robots enable students of all ages to become familiar with and deepen their knowledge of robotics and programming, while at the same time learning other cognitive skills. Find out how robots can help your children's education and which are the most popular among the wide range of robots available on the market.
WHAT IS EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS?
Educational robotics — or pedagogical robotics — is a discipline designed to introduce students to Robotics and Programming interactively from a very early age.
In the case of infant and primary education, educational robotics provides students with everything they need to easily build and program a robot capable of performing various tasks. There are also more advanced — and more expensive — robots for secondary and higher education. In any case, the complexity of the discipline is always adapted to the students' age.
Educational robotics is included within the so-called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, a teaching model designed to teach science, mathematics and technology together and one in which practice takes precedence over theory.
HOW DO ROBOTS HELP STUDENTS?
Through play, educational robots help children develop one of the basic cognitive skills of mathematical thinking at an early age: computational thinking. That is, they help develop the mental process we use to solve problems of various kinds through an orderly sequence of actions.
Skills enhanced through the use of educational robots.
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As well as developing computational thinking, educational robots promote the development of other cognitive skills among children and young people:
Learning from mistakes: discovering that errors are not final but a source of new conclusions is a valuable lesson for the future.
Teamwork: the group challenge approach encourages socialization and collaboration.
Adaptation: because of the growing increase of automation and intelligent devices, becoming familiar with the use of robots will help children adapt to the world of tomorrow more easily.
Creativity: the search for solutions and the freedom to assign new functions to these robots stimulates imagination and creativity.
Self-esteem: achieving success in a new field improves students' self-awareness.
Pro-active spirit: in addition to boosting their self-esteem, success in one field stimulates them to take on new tasks in other fields.
Self-assessment: by being able to see the results of their actions instantly, without the need for an adult to tell them whether they have done well or badly, students learn to assess their own performance.
Practical applications: applying the mathematical or physical knowledge learned in school motivates children and young people to continue studying these subjects.
Other cognitive skills that are positively influenced by educational robots are responsibility, order and a more optimal development of spatial perception and relationships between objects.
Another important benefit of educational robots is that they teach children to become familiar with and learn basic programming concepts, a skill that is becoming more and more important every year. A revealing fact: according to the European Commission, by 2020 there will be 825,000 unfilled jobs in Europe due to a lack of computer science and ICT professionals.
In the case of secondary and higher education, more advanced educational robots help students deepen their knowledge of robotics and programming. Furthermore, high-cost humanoid robots, programmed to teach any subject, are also useful in classrooms because of their ability to capture students' attention and, in robotics and programming classes, they act as the perfect link between theory and practice.
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