What Does STEAM and READING have in Common?

Does Your Child Just Learn about STEM at Robofun?

We just finished a fabulous day at Robofun with lots of happy campers attending our Election Day camp!

Going on behind the scenes, one staff member was running a Professional Development workshop for teachers in District 9, in the Bronx on our Coding and Design curriculum.

Additionally, my staff and I are continuing to update one of our curriculums for PreK students called Little Engineers.

I've been thinking deeper about what really goes on in a class at Robofun. It's not just about making and coding robots, designing video games, building a Minecraft project, or an animation. It is also about learning more broadly.

For PreK classes, we begin with circle time, and then we present a problem that we need to solve, such as how to create a sturdy chair or bed out of big LEGO that doesn't immediately fall apart, or we learn to connect two gears. We read a book, that touches upon our topic, and this helps our students see the connections between what they are building and what some of the characters in the book are doing. We have found that this context can be incredibly important and can provide another way in for some learners. After the reading, children return to the building and are more excited that they have contextualized their learning beyond the classroom and into a world beyond LEGO pieces.

If you have a PreSchooler, here are a few books that you may enjoy with your child that we have included in our curriculum and students love!

• Izzy Gizmo, by Pip Jones and Sara Ogilvie

• Rosie Revere, Engineer, by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts

• Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, by Richard Scarry

• Balancing Act, by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Happy Reading!