Robotics Exploration Builds Essential Skills
by Jeff Branson, Senior Director of STEAM Education & Partnerships
Today, we are moving through the second decade of Industry 4.0–the fourth industrial revolution–with intelligent digital technologies integrating into manufacturing and industrial processes. Traditional work is shifting because of these changes. And at TPZ, we’re embracing these tools and technologies because we know how important it is for students in our program to develop skills that will prepare them to be ready for college and careers.
It’s currently National Robotics Week–a time to celebrate and highlight the opportunities we have to engage the smart machines in our world. At TPZ, we are fortunate to have multiple ways for students to experience meaningful learning encounters in the larger area of robotics. Our Reinforcement Learning Deep Dive, for example, is an immersive 20-hour exploration, and during the most recent offering in February, our students experienced fun hands-on building with Little Bits and MicroBit. They implemented challenging yet gratifying software coding that taught their creations to “learn” a model for navigating a maze rather than following a set of rules for a particular maze. This wasn’t just a cool way to spend February vacation. The teens in the program were introduced to in-demand technologies and they strengthened important durable skills, such growth mindset, problem-solving, perseverance, and design thinking–essential skills that employers desire. They left the program with their sense of self and STEAM agency further developed.
Not all teens have access to state-of-the-art robotics technologies, especially many of those we welcome from local Boston neighborhoods. This is why TPZ has invested in our Innovation Center offerings to ensure that our FabLab is stocked with a myriad of microcontrollers (robot brains), circuit design and testing equipment, sensors, and motors that students can use to create endless expressions of their curiosity. Additionally, our students meet and work with industry partners, such as experts from the MIT Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group, who volunteer-mentor during the Deep Dive and our Open Studio hours.
As Industry 4.0 is showing us all, the integration of this smart technology with traditional hardware is key for our future workforce. TPZ students learn graphic design and how to use tools such as laser cutters, a Zund digital cutting machine, 3D printers, a Tormach Mill for wood and metals, and large-format printers. These machines perform well within the typical range of what we think of as “robotics.” And while concerns about the ethics of robotics and artificial intelligence are rightly being addressed in public discourse (and in our classrooms), we know the outputs also include very precise and repetitive work, done exceptionally quickly and at high quality (often resulting in safer workplaces).
The original word “robota” is a Czech meaning “forced labor.” Our FabLab machines on which our students learn, perform many kinds of labor in service of our programs and students’ learning and development. It’s essential that educational programs, communities, and businesses create more opportunities for all young people to have a firm grasp of emerging technology, in order to better prepare them for work and life in a new machine age.