Fundi Bots’ Robotics & STEM learning model provides hands-on training in robotics, STEM, and ICT for learners inside and outside schools to improve understanding of the school curriculum, while developing skills that extend learning beyond the classroom and prepare them for the future of work.
Show a student a robot, and they want to build one. That curiosity is an invitation: the student has already chosen to learn, and we get to teach someone who is fully invested.
The surprise comes at the end. Once students finish, they stop caring about the robot. What stays is a hunger for something bigger. They want to program games, apps, and animations. They want to design better cars and build aeroplanes and rockets bound for space. Most of all, they want to solve the problems they see at home and in their communities.
The robot is a tool that speeds up learning. What it changes is the learner. Students who once waited in class to be taught start seeking knowledge for themselves and for the world around them.
Over the past few years, we’ve been designing and upgrading our robotics curriculum. There are two new robotics curricula at Fundi Bots. The first is the Outreach Curriculum which is a 6-day training program which introduce learners to basics of programming, electronics and building structures.
The second is our more in-depth curriculum which is used in our Integrated Schools and Holiday Classes. This curriculum allows the learners to explore basics of robotics science and learn programming all the way to the point where they can program hardware. There are 5 variations of this curriculum to cater for five age groups we serve that is 6-7, 8-9, 10-12, 13-16 and 17-18.
These curricula range from a duration of 2 years to 5 years in length depending on the scope of engagement with the schools.
These curricula are designed to engage the learner in practical learning activities that develop critical thinking and creativity. Learners are encouraged to innovate and think outside the box. These skills can then extend to enable learners excel at other subjects in school.
The curriculum is also designed to incorporate the content the learners could be learning at school and hence helps with the cementing of knowledge for these learners while developing a string of soft skills.
In the implementation of the curricula, several formative and summative assessments are carried out. In addition to this M and E survey and evaluations are carried out at the start and end of training.
The data from these assessments and surveys serves as a guiding light for further improvement of the curriculum in question as well as the proper adaptation of instructional means to achieve the goal we desire.
We primarily work with government schools (urban and rural) who represent about 90% of our beneficiaries.