Saturday, December 1, 2012

Robot Class

Valerie's favourite 'Kau Foo' (uncle) aka my brother has been asking me when can he bring Valerie to robot class. When I first heard of it I was a bit skeptical. Valerie is a girl, will she enjoy going to robot class? And what do you learn there anyway? Myself, for instance, would not find much joy in assembling wires and small parts  :P Nevertheless, I let 'Kau Foo' bring her to a trial class.

Below are the photos he sent back to me. Looks like Valerie could really follow the lessons and really enjoyed herself. My brother told me at first she was shown a car model on the computer screen and what are the parts needed. Then she has to go gather the components and assemble following what's shown on the computer.

As a beginner, the teacher will choose an easy model for the kid to assemble. As you advance, you can design your own model. After that, all the kids will showcase their model and do a race to see who is faster. So it does need a bit of intelligence on how to design and make your model go faster.

Teacher guiding her which components to take

After a few times, she is able to identify herself which components to gather

Little engineer at work

More components gathering

Final product - Robotic Car

I have the misconception that she could actually take the robot car home. Nope, you can't. According to my brother, the electronic board behind the model costs a lot, so no way will let us take home. Valerie won 2nd place for her model and her name has a sticker on the board. There are only 2 girls name there, somehow I'm not surprised. You can find out more about this Robot Class from this website http://www.creativerobotics.com.my/home.htm

One thing that's funny though, after she came back from the class, she suddenly asked us for her toy screwdriver and started dissembling and assembling her helicopter. One of her last year Christmas pressie. So it's Handy Manny in the making :D