Confused Over Which STEM, Robotics Or Coding Programs To Choose?

This question has been bothering a lot of parents but they are embarrassed to ask. Glad you brought it up. In the context of Singapore, applied learning is more widely used than STEM. STEM in our curriculum is focusing on Physics, Mathematics and mechanical engineering principles. Our LEGO models are intentionally designed to demonstrate real-world situations where Science and Mathematics principles are all around us and to make students aware of them consciously.

Our Robotics coding are mainly based on mechanical, electrical and software engineering principles. In Robotics coding, there is usually a “brain” residing within the LEGO models which in technical terms can also be known as “smart hubs”. The programming language from the tablets or laptop will be sent and translated into a commands which the brain will understand. The “brain” will execute these commands provided by the coder, in this case, our students.

On top of that, computational thinking is one of the important skillset where the students will be guided to think like a computer.

In essence, STEM Robotics build up their general knowledge of real-world scenarios while Robotics coding tests their technical application on how computers or machines operate in the real-world application.

In the current Robotics and Coding enrichment schools for children, 30% are focusing on Robotics Coding. The other 70% schools are engaged on software coding. So what is the difference? The simple explanation is hardware vs no hardware.

Robotics coding and software coding are imparting different skillsets where both are essential. In the case of Robotics coding, a hardware LEGO model is needed. This ensures that a certain level of motor and spatial visual skillset is required before they attempt on the computational thinking and task of problem solving given to them on that challenge. In LEGO robotics,  it has the overwhelming effectiveness of increasing attention span and improve the focus on tasks completion. In the past, LEGO is only used as toys to entertain and keep the kids occupied. LEGO is now used effectively as both toys and education where edutainment is one of the common education philosophy.

In software coding, no hardware will be built or provided. Instead, they will only be given a tablet or laptop and of course their creativity to design animation and games.  Software coding ensure a wider boundary for exhibiting their creativeness where they are not bounded by any hardware limitation. The students will be working on platform that supports coding into application such as animation,  games or mobile apps via Scratch, Python or Android.

Oh wait a minute, isn’t laptop or tablet consider hardware? Well, indeed they are but this is not exactly what we refer to as hardware. Hardware is the piece of equipment that can be programmed or coded using a tablet or laptop to perform a certain task. In our robotics coding curriculum, LEGO and its computing accessories are our hardware. In other Robotics curriculum, they could be using Microbits, Arduino or Raspberry. This will be packaged with a casing to look like a Robotic outfit. The curriculum will be imparting the students on computational thinking on how to task the Robots to perform certain functionality or tasks.

Well, we do not wish to hide the fact that we do charge for our trial class. And the reason why we do so is simply because trial class students get to enjoy what our regular class students are doing and more. They will have a dedicated set of educational tools worth more than $800  during the trial class. (They do not share with any other students.) This will ensure our trainers could have a better assessment of their personal ability and provide the feedbacks to parents in order to be able to assign them to the right level of classes.

On the other hand, those coding schools which provide free trial lessons usually need just a simple tablet or laptop to conduct their coding classes. The cost of conducting a software coding lesson vs a Robotics coding lesson is much lower.

Most of the parents are willing to invest in a trial class for their child in order to assess their interest level. We do not force parents to sign up for our class if the child does not have any interest at all.

In both STEM and Coding curriculum, LEGO Robotics is the overwhelming choice for most parents and schools. Students are exposed to their building and motor skills where they need to visualize and build the models based on a 2D building sheet. This provided the students with another important skills on spatial visual and reasoning. There are some hidden angles on the 2D build sheet which require the student to exhibit their spatial visual and reasoning in order to complete the model. LEGO Robotics are one of the few curriculum that is able to provide them with such spatial reasoning.

Most of the open-source Robotics came with ready-made Robots. Their lesson’s objective is to focus mostly on coding and computational skills. They do not necessary provide STEM theory or principles even though some of them claim that they do so. Due to the ready-made structure, they could be using the same robots for 6-10 different lessons but teaching different computational thinking concepts and coding commands. Some of our current students came from these robotics schools and parents complained that their child lost interest after a few lessons.

As for LEGO Robotics, students rarely get bored because they are building different LEGO models to demonstrate different situations of real-world applications. This is the reason why LEGO is not only the biggest toy manufacturer. They also claimed to be the biggest education institutional since they using LEGO tools to disguise entertainment as education.

One of our main education philosophy is learning agility. In the rapid changing world, students are subjected to constant challenges of new evolving technology. We believe by exposing them to these variety of learning opportunity, they are better equip to prepare for whatever challenges being brought to them.

Our learning modules consists of STEM Robotics, Robotics Coding, Software Coding, Machine Learning, LEGO Competitions and Direct School Admission. Our objective is to prepare them to a holistic experience which ultimately leads them to their desired secondary school admission.

• STEM Robotics: Physics, Mathematics and mechanical engineering principles
• Robotics Coding: Mechanical, electrical and software engineering 
• Software Coding: computer science/ computational thinking
• Artificial intelligence: Data Science and Machine Learning
• Competition: leadership, entrepreneurship project management
• Direct School Admission: presentation skills

In the past, excelling in one subject is sufficient to get their career forward. However, for the 21st century, it will require more than 1 subject as the 4th generation of industrial revolution focus on multi-disciplinary fields to excel.

Yes, and very much so. Part of our Robotics curriculum are acquired from our Young Engineers franchise where our Young Engineers programmes are endorsed by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. We are enhancing and localizing the global Robotics curriculum into real-world situation that are commonly used and seen by our students. We understand how our local students perform and structure our lesson’s objective to be able to provide a fair assessment of their holistic ability. We have curriculum partners who are real engineers and are able to design and create challenges to evaluate their problem solving ability. In our lessons, we have more than 300 different LEGO models and growing that demonstrate different aspects of STEM and Coding principles.

Some of the LEGO Robotics curriculum provider are using the direct curriculum from LEGO education especially those who conduct for schools. There is nothing wrong with that except that they are limited with only a few lessons. LEGO education also tends to provide simple models that does not fully challenge their spatial visuality.

We also conduct our curriculum in local as well as international schools. Our trainers to student’s ratio is 1: 20 (max) or 1: 12 (min). There is a limitation as to what each student will absorb or learn from these lessons. Let’s be honest, trainers will not be able to put all attentions on each student.

However, in our class lessons, our trainer to student’s ratio is lower at 1:2 or 1:4. If the class size increase, we will add another trainer to assist the main trainer with the class. This will ensure the students learnings are not compromised.

Many of our students took up Robotics CCA as well as our Robotics curriculum. Some of them have been with us for 2-3 years. Our curriculum will ensure that they are learning all the different aspects of STEM, Coding, Artificial Intelligence without overwhelming them.

We do not repeat the same models in any of our class. However, some of the models might look similar, but the construction and lesson’s objectives are different.

In our class, we put more emphasize on STEM and coding principles  for the kids. The construction of the models contributes just 25% of our lesson’s objectives. The students will be challenge to understand some of the key STEM or coding principles and applying their knowledge into improving their model construction. We have more than 300 different LEGO models ranging from different level of difficulty and application.

As explained, the models might look similar, but in our curriculum, we have integrated a hybrid of STEM and Coding into a single module. As a result, the students will be exposed to both principles even though they thought they are building similar models.

The basic assessment will only reflect the student’s current progress and will not include an individualized development plan and roadmap.

With a longer commitment with us, we are able to plan ahead and discuss the progression for the student for the entire year. The development will come in the form of an individualized development plan where we scrutinize the strengths and weaknesses of the student and formulate action plans to enable each student to reach their potential.

The charted roadmap is given to show the progress of the student in the programme and his/her subsequent level in the developmental pathway.

We require a certain level of commitment from our instructors. As much as possible, instructors remain with their students for the entire course. This is to ensure that instructors are familiar with the students and can engage them effectively.

There is no minimum number of students in the class, but we encourage peer learning in our lessons. may recommend timeslots to ensure that group activities can take place to provide learning opportunities and for positive compromise and understanding of working in a team.