LEGO and Robots at the First Robotics Learning Center

September 16, 2015 CherylReview

We used to live a stone’s throw away from First Robotics Learning Center in Annapolis, Greenhills but we’ve never had the chance to see what’s inside. Now that DA is much older and the opportunity to try it out has come, we jumped at it and signed up.

Well, he was a actually a day shy of turning 4 (the minimum age) when we had our trial class. Teeheehee!

First Robotics Learning Center

FIRST Robotics is the pioneering robotics center in the Philippines that uses state-of-the-art materials primarily utilized in the field of robotics. It is open to kids who want to learn how to design, build and program robotics to do what they want.

It offers after-school classes and summer programs.

First Robotics Learning Center — Photo from Deal Grocer

Needless to say, we had no trouble finding the place but some did get lost though as it is situated just a bit inside.

While waiting, we were led into Room 1.

These colorful LEGO blocks were the attraction in that room. Who doesn’t love these blue, red, and green blocks anyway? 🙂

Not this buddy, of course! Build away, young man, build away!

While the kids were preoccupied, the grownups got to tour the facility.

4+ Age Group

This is the room for students 4-6 years old. The kids in this class use LEGO Duplo blocks as a means to build simple manual machines.

Number of session: 9
Hours per Session: 1.5 hours
Tuition Fee: P8, 500

Apart from the normal Duplo bricks, they also have these gears and pulleys and stuffs. I don’t seem to see these parts in regular Duplos that are sold in toy stores. Do you?

7+ Age Group

This is for students 7-8 years old. The kids will learn to create moving models using LEGO WeDo (construction set and graphical programming language) while enhancing their creative and problem solving skills. Kids doing programming already?? Wow! Don’t worry, it’s the drag and drop kind, should you fret that it’s too nerdy for 7 year olds. 🙂

Number of session: 9
Hours per Session: 1.5 hours
Tuition Fee: P9, 000

Ooooh! Can you imagine the endless possibilities that these can build!

Cool, huh?

9+ Age Group

This is for students ages 9 and up. I’m not sure though of how high the age can go as I’m also wondering if I can enrol myself on this class (because it’s so interesting!). They gave me an open ended remark about it so I suppose it’s still up for discussion. Anyway, the students here use LEGO Mindstorms, the robotic line of LEGO. Here, they get to build their own robots and program it to do whatever.

The theme for this age group is Minecraft. The robots they build get to traverse the challenging slopes and pathways.

Number of session: 9
Hours per Session: 1.5 hours
Tuition Fee: P9, 500

Class is Starting, Let’s Go!

Teacher Raquel presented a story about a girl ice hockey player as a way to connect. At the end of the story, she presented the problem, which is the need for another hockey player on the team.

The kids were each given a basket of the parts. The parts were then identified one by one and counted to check if everything was complete.

Building time. The instructions were flashed on the screen and they followed it step by step. Look at how much fun this kid was having! He was actually so noisy that time, shouting “I’m done! I’m done!” after each step. 🙂

Teacher Raquel was quick to help the students during each step.

Ta-da!

The challenge now is to get the puck into the goal by turning the wheel at the back so the robot’s hockey stick will move.

Here’s a video of me trying to get the puck in. Haha!

After practising, the kids then had a friendly Hockey game on the floor. After which, they were awarded trophies for their efforts. 🙂

Of course, I was only able to attend the first group’s class. For details on the other age groups, check out these posts from my fellow mommy bloggers:

What to Love about First Robotics

Learning is Fun. It’s a very cool way to disguise learning because the kids actually have fun along the way. Everyone loves bricks and everyone’s fascinated with robots, right?
Alternative for Gadgets. Kids these days are always glued to their gadgets playing some sort of an app or a game. Instead of being passive receptors of technology, why not be at the front of it, designing the apps and games? Appreciating robotics at an early age helps with this.
Capable Teachers. Although it’s a small facility, the teachers that handle the students are more than capable as they have Education and Engineering degrees.
Accessible. Its location is accessible via public transport. It’s near EDSA already, the nearest MRT station being Santolan-Annapolis. Parking spaces in that area however is scarce so it’s best to park your vehicle in Greenhills and ride a jeepney to go to it.

First Robotics Learning Center