KinderLab Robotics Launches Four New Curriculum Guides
The guides for teachers offer 40 hours of integrated STEAM activities that inspire students to explore and learn with the KIBO robot’s expansion modules
(Waltham, MA) February 28, 2018 — KinderLab Robotics has expanded its KIBO™ curriculum suite by announcing four new Curriculum Guides. In addition to Creating with KIBO, the company’s 40-hour core curriculum framework covering programming, robotics, and the engineering design process with KIBO, these new guides explore cross-curricular activities using the KIBO expansion modules:
– Marker Extension Set
– Sound Record/Playback Module
– Building Brick Extension Set
– Expression Module
Each of the new curriculum guides offers 10 hours of in-classroom STEAM curriculum that connect coding and robotics to arts, literature, performance, architecture, engineering, and more, through creative activities. Complete lesson plans for each activity are supported by classroom tips, pictures, and linked videos.
The expansion modules are designed to encourage young learners, aged 4–7, to learn STEAM concepts in playful, new ways. With their new accompanying curriculum guides, educators and students can engage in thoroughly researched and curated activities that use these modules to further explore STEAM learning.
“KIBO provides kids with an open-ended playground for age-appropriate STEAM exploration,” said Jason Innes, KinderLab’s manager of curriculum development and training. “The new curriculum allows teachers to make the most of the exciting new KIBO add-ons we’ve developed. KIBO curriculum is based on the idea of turning children into active creators with technology, exploring and expressing their own interests while learning computational thinking and engineering concepts.”
The Four New Curriculum Guides are:
Showtime with KIBO!: With the KIBO Sound Record/Playback Module, students record their own voice and KIBO plays back their recording to give their robot sound. This Showtime with KIBO! Guide provides curriculum where students can create bilingual translating robots; use their robots as a tour guide to show off their favorite cities; and perform a variety show incorporating song, dance, and more.
Make Learning Visible!: The KIBO Marker Extension Set enables KIBO to draw as it moves, based on the child’s programming sequence. The Make Learning Visible! Guide delves into engineering, mathematics, literacy, and art. Curriculum examples include programming KIBO to draw shapes and letters, create abstract artworks, and estimate distances by measuring the lines KIBO draws as it explores a cardboard town.
Build it Better!: With the KIBO Building Brick Extension Set, students can build onto their KIBO by using the world’s most popular building bricks, including LEGO®. The Build it Better! Guide provides engineering and architecture ideas for students to use LEGO-compatible building bricks. They can create and program robotic pets, build dream houses, and invent their own solutions to problems in favorite storybooks.
Express Yourself!: The KIBO Expression Module supports a variety of literacy activities and allows children to transform KIBO with drawings, flags, and other decorations. The Express Yourself! Guide provides art, literacy, and social studies ideas and activities. Students can create interactive book reports using the whiteboard, explore other countries and decorate their flags for a robotic world parade, and create interactive self-portraits.
The curriculum guides are available for $25 each or $75 for all four booklets. Until March 31, 2018, KinderLab Robotics is offering customers who purchase two or more of one of the KIBO expansion modules an accompanying curriculum guide for free.
About KinderLab Robotics, Inc.
KinderLab Robotics is the creator of KIBO, a robot kit based on 15 years of child development research, that enables young children to build, program, decorate, and run their own robot. Developed by Dr. Marina Umaschi Bers at Tufts University specifically for teachers, KIBO is used in over 50 countries and has proven efficacy in helping kids learn STEAM concepts—and getting excited about them! KinderLab offers a complete suite of teaching materials that help integrate STEAM elements into a wide range of curricula, including art, cultural studies, and literacy. KIBO is a GOLD Winner of the 2017 Parents’ Choice Award in the Toy Category, and a Finalist in The Tech Edvocate “Best Early Childhood Education App/Tool” category.
For more information, please visit KinderLabRobotics.com.
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