RoboThink a fun and educational after-school activity
At RoboThink Sussex, children can build robots, learn how to program them, and then watch as their creations come to life.
Owner Aliaksandra Hare says the goal of RoboThink Sussex is to provide a fun and educational after-school activity to introduce children to the world of science, technology, engineering and math. She hopes it prepares children for a possible career in the STEM field.
Making sure children have fun is important, she said. “When learning associates with fun, we get children who want to learn more and more,” she said. “That’s the whole idea.”
Classes are split by age group and offered once a week. The cost is $120 per month.
Hare likens RoboThink Sussex to a martial arts class, where children become more adept the longer they stick with it. “Just like anything else, you’re not going to be a pro at something if you’re only there for a little bit,” she said. “We encourage kids to stay with us as long as possible so they get to the point where they don’t need to be in class anymore, and everything is easy for them.”
Classes will be offered for children ages 5 to 8 on Mondays, 10 to 14 on Wednesdays and 9 to 13 on Fridays. She will also offer before-school classes at Delmarva Christian and after-school classes at Sussex Academy.
The curriculum will take students from novice-level robot building to advanced levels where they can program a robot’s actions. Classes vary from an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half. There is time built in for kids to be creative, Hare said, allowing them add functions to make the robot move faster or modify it to be sturdier.
One level of the curriculum allows kids to build a soccer bot. The robot is equipped with claws that can be controlled by a wired or wireless controller. Once complete, there’s a soccer field where kids can face off to see who can score more goals.
As students progress, they are introduced to coding. It starts with basic commands, telling a robot to move a direction for a certain distance or rotate a certain number of degrees. The coding eventually advances to programming a game on a tablet. From there the basic commands can be converted to lines of code. They’ll also eventually learn how to program a joystick to control their robots.
Hare said she decided to open RoboThink Sussex because there is a lack of STEM-related activities for local children. Hare has been a web developer for the last 12 years, but has been working with programming since third grade.
“My parents wanted me to learn from early on,” she said. “That stayed with me the rest of my life. Now I want to pass it on.”
In addition to weekly classes, she said, she plans to offer camps for kids during spring, summer and winter breaks. Children will be able to participate in half- or full-day camps.
RoboThink was founded in Illinois in 2016. It’s turned into a global company with locations throughout the United States and several around the world.
RoboThink Sussex is set to open Wednesday, Jan. 1. It is located in the Cape Professional Campus on Kings Highway near the intersection of Clay Road.
There will be an open house from 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 11. To learn more about RoboThink Sussex, go to www.robothinksussex.com, email sussex@myrobothink.com or call 302-966-9595.
