The digital and technological world we all live in has influenced our lives in ways our grandparents (and even our parents) couldn’t have ever imagined.
The technological advancements have empowered the scientific community to make more meaningful and significant discoveries. It also provides inspiration not only to scientists but also to parents and teachers around the globe to develop, design and innovate regarding the way we learn science and technology. This way, we prioritize learning through hands-on experience, just like in our online coding courses.
As we have mentioned on several occasions, robots will replace more than 2 billion humans in their workplaces over the next decade. But don’t worry, there is a way to look at this issue from a more positive perspective: Your kids can learn how to program robots and they can participate in a number of wonderful and very engaging robotics competitions.
It is precisely these competitions we wanted to write about, so get comfortable and learn about their importance and their variety with us.
Why robotics competitions are so important
The emergence of robotics is a great example of how far we have come in terms of innovation. It is a fact that this constantly evolving field impacts manufacturing, agriculture, education, transportation, and communications, just to mention a few…
Also, the participation of women in these kinds of competitions is increasing every day! Robotics competitions are actually a great place to see how both boys and girls participate together in an equal, fair, open way. Girl power!
The goal of these competitions, and of the field itself, is to build a robot that can be a partner for humans in fulfilling tasks, any kind of task! Does this sound like something your kid would like to do? We can show you how we make that possible!
By incorporating, for example, computer programming and items from the world of engineering, those who participate in competitions will learn to become active problem solvers through strategic planning and reasoning.
As important as that is, it also gives participants a fun and exciting way of learning science in a very hands-on, practical way. Did we mention that our online programming courses work on this same principle of hands-on learning and project-based learning?
Why your kids should learn how to program a robot, and participate in robotics competitions
To give our kids the tools they’ll most likely need tomorrow, various robotics competitions allow middle and high school kids to show their own robots, and the thought processes they had before actually building it.
More than just comprehending the technical abilities they need to build a robot, they also gain understanding and investigate new technologies that could somehow contribute to our society.
6 Amazing Robotics Competitions
We’d like to show you some great examples of robotics competitions that are being held all over the world; competitions that could give your kids the tools she or he needs to become the next great innovator of the future. And of course, these are competitions where they will have fun and make new, talented friends.
FRC and FTC are both sponsored by FIRST (the biggest player in robotics competitions), which incorporates various skills in robotics for the future. The biggest difference between these 2 competitions is that FRC builds bigger robots. These events are huge, very exciting, and they are one of the most important exponents when talking about robotics competitions.
Robofest is not just a competition. It is more like a festival of various robotics events that encourages your kids to learn STEM while having fun. Participants get to design, actually build and even program robots while there.
FLL is also an event from FIRST, but where students work with LEGO. FLL means “FIRST LEGO League”, and in this cool, engaging, active competition, participants code, program and build their EV3’s in a friendly, but competitive environment. Do you know what can help your kids practice this? Our online robotics courses! In it, they’ll be able to practice with their very own, virtual version, of the real LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3.
VEX Robotics Competition is more than just building a robot. The participants play against each other in a mission, game-based challenge that incorporates cool engineering elements.
Soft Robotics Design Competition is a competition that takes place online and allows participants to build wearable robotics that will assist human movement and manipulate objects. Think about how this could help your kids be the ones to invent implants or elements that could assist, for example, handicapped people in the future. Interesting, isn’t it? Your kids can make this world a better place, through coding!
CRCC is the newest player in this selected group. As part of an initiative from the ISCEF foundation, and with the sponsorship of Oracle, Yaskawa and CoderZ, CRCC (Cyber-Robotics Coding Competition) is an online competition for schools in the United States where students program a virtual robot and have to accomplish a number of gamified missions.
Find out more about gamified programming
The involvement of your kids in these, or others, robotics competitions will give them a number of useful engineering and programming skills, and it will also help them get more self-esteem, confidence, boost their critical thinking, and strengthen their – very important nowadays – teamwork capacities.
How to begin today?
Here at TekkieUni we offer a number of programming courses, all live and online. One of our latest additions is the Robotics course. In this class, your children will be able to practice, hands-on, how to program their very own robot while writing code for a virtual version of the -very well-known LEGO Mindstorms EV3, which is the same robot used both in the CRCC mentioned before, and in the FLL competition.
Giving your kids the chance to experience robotics with their own hands, is giving your kids the possibility to start experiencing the future, today. With our online courses you’ll be able to do this in an easy, accessible and engaging way. Give it a try and receive more information about our robotics course for kids and teens here.
