mBot leads your children a big leap forward along his coding journey, allow to program with a real robot. Through comprehension, design, application & development, students do not only learn coding in a happy and relaxing way, but, even more importantly, also achieve all-rounded self-development.
In an mBot course, students not only have to comprehend the programming language, but also to learn the uses of various parts and sensors on the robot. After a certain extent of thorough understanding, each student can be able to integrate all knowledge together to assemble a unique mBot of his/her own by their unique programming codes.
Our mBot course does not only focus on working out the programming codes, we also expect our students to assemble their own real mBot robot and even add on additional components. During classes, students are required to modify their own designed mBot, say adding or removing some of those components, in order to execute what they have written in the codes or to align with what they imagine it would be. This is not as simple as one may imagine, as most of the components are interlinked with one another, our young inventors have to carefully look into the details and make sure any modification would not affect its practical operation. In most cases, it requires repeated trials and verification to the robot goes the expected way.
With mBot, coding no longer being confined as a computer game. We encourage our students to elaborate ideas from practical daily-life experiences, such as how a delivery truck can be imitated using mBot. Through repeated practices in our course, we believe that our students would be able to connect the seemingly-virtual coding world with real-life applications. And they will realize that a lot of phenomenon or things happen around us are actually related to the programming logics and the uses of robot. Having to expand their horizon, these trainings shall also further develop their thinking mindsets and scopes
mBot definitely gives our young coders a much in-depth understanding of coding. Through coding with mBot, our students can apply and visualize the “virtual” program they code on a computer/tablet screen over on a “real” robot. And this is also how they shall slowly correlate between the real and the computational world. We hope this mBot course can help our students to discover and foster their interest towards technology development and plan for a better future.
Course Content
mBot is not simply an object that responds to or acts according to the command blocks or programming codes like many other coding kits for younger kids, it also requires hands on actions to build the robot, including assembling the physical components, connecting the circuit cables, fitting-on the sensors, etc. And finally they have to load the written program onto the robot, and check in details whether the codes really work as expected. Projects created with mBot are all very practical in real lives. So we always encourage our code-learners keep their eyes open for things around them and be inspired for their next project creations.
Final Project
Before completion of the course, it is time for each student to consolidate what they have learnt, enhanced with their creativity, and produce a unique project of their own. During the very last lesson, each of them will become a public speaker, presenting and demonstrating their own mBot adventure in front of the tutor and their classmates.
What will you get after completing the course?
- Clipped video of final project presentation
- Overall learning evaluation report
- Tutor’s comments and recommendations
- Course-completion certificate
Target Students
mBot is for children aged 9 to 12. Every child with Scratch coding experience is welcomed to join us on this magical coding journey.
Things You Need
Each student has to buy a box of mBot Robot kit as learning tool throughout the course. Additional components or modules are optional according to the learning progress and to be recommended by tutors individually. Computer equipment for programming will be provided during classes.
Level 1
The course starts from letting students learn how to assemble the mBot robot in level 1, and to get familiarized with the functions and physics theories of different components, such as the light sensor and ultrasonic sensor. The students will then continue to use programming codes to send commands to those components, like to move along a line or to avoid an obstacle in front. We would also incorporate elements of logics, mathematics, music, etc, to make coding more multi-dimensional, in order to train up their cognitive competence.
Level 2
During level 2, students shall start to modify their mBot, with various additional components, to expand the list of actions to be performed by the robot, such as adding a rotatable neck sensor so that it can turn its “head” to detect obstacles in all directions around it, to breakthrough some limitations. At the same time, we expect our robo-coders to explore real-life applications, for example, they can design a surveillance alarm with mBot, which it will make warning sounds and lights when there is somebody approaches the robot within a certain distance. This is important for students to comprehend the principles of many of the technologies they encountered in daily lives.
Level 3
The course in level 3 will involve more mathematical elements, such as the conversion between binary and decimal systems along with their real-life applications. The interdisciplinary study enables students to understand that the computer programming language is composed of “0” and “1”, so as to lay a good foundation for programming. Students will be exposed to advanced programming concepts at level 3 and will be challenged to search for the correct routes for the robot by using the color sensor to match the correct and respective color. Students need to thoroughly master the technology of the new sensors in level 3, and combine their previous knowledge to enable the program to fully meet the requirements of the route-searching challenge.
Level 4
The 4th level of the course moves beyond mechanical vehicles to robotic arm applications, students will learn skills of writing automated programs. Through the combination of different sensors, previous manual applications utilized have been upgraded to the full-automatic mode, such as using both sensors and robotic arms to make an automatic cargo distribution system. In addition to programming, students can also learn the ways assembling motors to enable the robot arm to move at multiple angles for accomplishing even complicated tasks. Students will be required to consider the application and design of the robotic arm in a comprehensive way, during which more challenges will be encountered to train students’ logical thinking and problem solving skills.
Level 5
The 5th Level is the last level of the course, in which students are required to make full use of what they have learned throughout the five levels. They are encouraged to be creative and to integrate the programming skills learned in all levels into a “super project”! In addition to consolidating the previous knowledge learned, the contents of the famous global competitions will be covered in classes, so that students can have a further understanding of the external competitions. This can improve their cognitive level, therefore to make their programs more comprehensive and richer. Students’ logical thinking and problem-solving ability can be well-trained.
mBot helps to build a strong foundation for learning to code in the future, and have a much better understanding of its relation to real-life technologies. After they complete the 5 levels of the course, we will give personalized recommendation and arrangement regarding their next step for more advanced courses.