After School Matters
RCW Continues Education

Why After School Matters

After school matters for many reasons. Here at RobotCity Workshop we care about continuing education beyond the traditional classroom setting. Let us look at a few of these reasons in detail.

1) Combining Education and Entertainment

It has been said that the most engaging and memorable teachers are the ones who entertain while they teach. RCW trains and encourages all instructors to combine the elements of entertainment and education.

We remember stories not facts.

The stories of the RCW classrooms are always great.

While all instructors are accompanied with “sample scripts” or “talking points” for the daily robot activity, they are also motivated to make the words their own. An hour of teaching robots in front of a room full of students is literally a performance on a unique, non-traditional stage. Students make their own performances through the daily activities.

For example, consider our simplest reusable classroom activity, Gears.

A bin of interlocking gears are brought into the classroom. “O.K. kids today we’re going to learn about gears. Who can define gear?” Students learn or review a quick vocabulary relevant to the daily task and then move forward into the activity challenge. “Now that we know what a gear is let’s talk about some awesome inventions that use gears.” Many hands are raised and students share some noteworthy names of everyday things using gears.

“It is now your activity challenge to work as a team to create an invention of your own. You must give it a name, a function and pinpoint a unique part or power source that is really important.”

Students are then given a set time to cooperate and create their own inventions using gears. Nearing the end of the activity challenge students are given their “Time is almost up,” warning.

“Now, it is time for the teams to present their inventions to one another.”

During just one hour, students are introduced to relevant vocabulary, challenged to implement that vocabulary with creative thinking and build teamwork and presentation/public speaking skills all while having fun.

A happily engaged student finishes presenting with the team, “and that’s how our invention works!”

2) Kids Learn in Different Ways

Faced with a textbook of word after word is simply not the best way for most kids to learn. Through the hands on activities described in the above section students are learning in a hands on environment while being given the opportunity to excel in a number of avenues. Let’s review those items present in the above section:

  • Learning relevant vocabulary
  • Creative thinking
  • Cooperation and team building
  • Presentation and public speaking skills

Now, we omitted the obvious that comes with RCW classes. Students are learning how robots work!

From the basic shape of a gear to programming classes kids are getting the opportunities to learn not just from plain black and white text but from hands-on-activites.

Building something from the individual components and knowing how they all work together ignite an early interest in programming, general science, engineering and or robotics. All of these avenues need new leaders. Your child might just be the leader in his or her field of the future.

3) Independent Learning

The more curious a mind becomes about how something works the more their critical thinking is activated. After building a number of robots over the various sessions offered with RCW children take them home.

The robot is a reminder of the work they accomplished in the class. Being reminded of that work has brought many students into our shop to continue their learning.

Staring to see why after school matters?

Parents arrive in our store asking about new robots and activities all the time. “Our son loved the Snap Circuits Jr. kit. We were wondering if you had something a little more advanced.” “Sure,” one of our friendly staff replies.

“If you think your son is ready we suggest the Snap Circuits XP kit that connects to a computer. This is a great way for students to continue learning about the various components in a circuit while using hardware and software to program circuits to carry out specific functions.”

“Really?” the parent replies. “That’s great. Now tell me a little about your birthday parties.”

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment below and let us know if you have any questions about our afterschool program, in-store robot classes or birthday parties.

We are RobotCity Workshop and we believe after school matters!

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