Why robotics kits should be a part of the school bag!

School bags (or Backpacks, depending on which part of the world you live) are the ubiquitous students’ commodity that are predominantly associated with school goers. These articles of nylon and fabric material are always conceived as a symbol of pride in a society. This connection is somewhat obvious considering the fact that more students who visit schools are a sign of a healthy nation, one that gives value to its children’s education.

However, of late, the humble school bag is no longer viewed with such a pleasant outlook. It is viewed as a symbol of proverbial “burden” that young school students are harried with. With increasingly long school hours and excruciatingly tougher subjects, students today can be metaphorically linked to “beasts of burden” who are banished to carry increasing loads of concepts. What makes the burden unbearable is the fact that students like oxen are not aware of the true value of toil they indulge themselves. Just like the oxen who are not aware of the real fruits of labour which end up in bountiful harvests, students indulge in endless chores of rigorous learning for which they are quite unaware of the benefits.

Education, in particularly STEM, is a valuable element of students’ curriculum. It helps students actually realize their dreams of becoming personnel of the engineering, medicine and science stream. However, a majority of students who learn these concepts do not understand the true potential of their subjects. Subjects of the science and math stream which students come across in their formative years are just looked at as obstacles littered along the path to realizing true as opposed to the fact that these are important areas of study which would improve the perception and scientific acumen of students. 

A rather pitiable truth is the fact that this mindset, which is usually viewed at as a product of generation gap, still persists largely through the Indian society with parents and teachers increasingly encouraging students to get done with the school subjects to pursue dreams of their own. What would’ve been desirable is if these parents and teachers encouraged students to look at these subjects as tools of knowledge that could improve their perspectives it would provide students with the right track to pursue and not view their courses with animosity. 

What role do robotics kits play in such an environment?

Robotics as a multidisciplinary field is at the forefront of core technologies. By including concepts from mechanics, electronics, computer science etc. in its pre-requisties, the field of robotics represents the true synergy between subjects which students learn as a part of their STEM curriculums at schools. With such significance attached to the subject, it is imperative that it is introduced in the classroom environment.

The use of robotics in education can be considered as two-tined.

a) The application of robotics in a classroom environment, where teachers who are conducive to the advantages of using robots, creatively fit usage of robots or robotic kits into the existing curriculum. 

b) The usage of robots or robotic kits in school robotics clubs, where dedicated instructors supervise interested students in their free time.

This would be made possible if the school bag was reshuffled to accommodate a purpose robotics kit into the school bag. Such a usage would actively make education entertaining and less of a burden for the young minds and would make lugging around bags easier and purposeful for the innovators of tomorrow.

We at Kidobotikz believe that STEM education should be stemmed in the minds of young ones as a fun experience rather than one that they view as burden. Our purpose designed kits which can slide into school bags with ease can make learning a joyous experience.

Happy Roboting ! !