Learn more about how you can get your children involved in Robotics and Coding to give them a better future.
Coding, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence are all hot topics in the world of STEM education. Coding, for instance, is a language that computers understand which helps our society progress with technology. These topics have proven to be able to make kids into creative thinkers who can see beyond what is right in front of them. And if taught to children from their basics can help them make a good future with ai and robotics.
As the world becomes more digitalized children need to learn about these new technologies. But for kids to learn them they need the right opportunities.
Unfortunately, many schools don't offer these technological skills, so most kids tend to find it more difficult to learn to code when they grow up.
Now that’s where parental guidance comes in. It is your duty as parents to enroll your children in extracurricular programs that will teach them these valuable skills.
This article will explore these three fields that have been growing quickly across the globe, and explain why they are important in your kids’ future.
What is coding and what can it do for kids?
Coding is writing a set of instructions for a computer to follow. It can be used to solve problems, create games and apps, and much more. When taught to children, kids can use coding and robotics in the future to make them think logically, solve problems and even express themselves creatively.
Because of its complexity, people often have a misleading belief that children less than 15 years shouldn’t learn coding and programming. But the truth is that there’s no age restriction to learning how to code as long as the child wants to learn. For instance, children as young as 5 years old have been able to learn coding basics with the help of online programs like Tynker without ever picking up a textbook. And with time, they’ve been able to write impressive codes and build AIs that most adults find difficult.
Some benefits of learning code include improved mathematical understanding, increased self-esteem, better communication, and collaboration skills due to working in teams on projects together, etc.
The benefits of ai, coding, and robotics for kids
Improves a child’s interest in technology, engineering, and programming:
The topics above are seen as very difficult and boring, which is sometimes true. But since coding and robotics are both important and sought-out skills, you can introduce your child to it at an early stage and give him/her a head start before his/her mates.
● It’s an important skill for future employment:
the programming niche is one of the most paid work niches in the country. With a skill in coding, ai or robotics, your child could be a high-paid freelancer or have one or more well-paid remote or on-site jobs.
● It ignites curiosity and enhances creativity and problem-solving skills:
unlike many other career paths, coding, ai and robotics usually comes with unique problems. And in the process of solving these problems, it improves your child’s creativity as his/her increased curiosity will lead to finding new ways to solve a problem.
● It instills teamwork and collaboration:
One person could have multiple skills in other career paths but it’s almost impossible for a programmer to have more than one programming skill -partly because of how vast and complex each skill is. For instance, a back-end developer mightn’t have the skills of a UX/UI designer, and a blockchain developer might not know how front-end development works.
Because of this skill diversity, a child that has some coding, robotics, and ai skills will be able to associate well with other programmers while also learning good work ethics and teamwork.
BONUS
Ways that parents can teach their children about coding, robotics, and AI at home
Because of advancements in technology, it’s now very easy and almost free for one to learn any kind of coding skill. You can leverage this opportunity to get your child to be used to coding by researching and using simple, flexible, and informative tools on the internet. Below are some ways you can teach your child about coding, robotics, and AI at home.
● Simplify the meaning and use of coding:
The first step to take to make your children want to learn code is by teaching them the meaning of coding in the simplest of terms. You can do this by using real-life examples, creating explainer videos, telling them a story in your native language or you can get creative by making a song about coding.
You can also use the idea of starburst candies to explain probability and machine language to your child. Or you can use real-life activities like Apple’s Siri, and even movie recommendation services like Netflix to explain ai, coding, and robotics to children
You should also make sure to answer all the questions that your children ask concerning coding because children tend to acquire a deeper understanding of a topic by asking questions.
Use coding games:
Most kids prefer playing games to reading a book or listening to their teacher. And since they can comfortably play these games for hours unending, you can divert the wasted time into playing coding, ai, or robotics games.
Another reason why parents should consider using games to teach their kids learning is that, while playing games, children realize that they’re no life-threatening consequences to failing. So they shrug off failure, restrategize and try harder to cross a particular threshold. If this energy, consistency, and determination are channeled to learning to code, ai or robotics, your child will find it easy and never get bored.
Examples of coding games and kid-friendly coding apps for children.
Register them in a code club:
Since like attracts like, you might consider registering your child in a code club. This club could be inside or outside school, or it could be a club that holds during the holidays.
Being in a code club will not only expand your child’s programmer association, but it will also expose them to new opportunities. In addition to them, it will help them practice more through group and solo projects.
Get physical:
Most of the online coding teaching tools are theory-based, and since programming is more practical, you might want to start giving your kids real-life coding projects. These projects could be as basic as dismembering and reassembling a robot toy and pointing out its features, writing an arithmetic looping code, creating the tic-tac-toe game, and many other projects.
Do it together:
One of the best ways to make learning coding fun is by actually doing the work with your child. This could include learning to write codes with them and even brainstorming for solutions to problems together. Not only will this improve your bond with your child, but you’ll also get to closely monitor his/her progress and learn a thing or two about coding.
CONCLUSION
There’re numerous reasons why you should encourage your child to learn to code. Not only does it improve his/her critical thinking, but it can also serve as a source of financial freedom and a career path in the future.
QtPi would like to thank Diamaka Aniagolu, Guest Author