Do you know that robotics is the future? Robotics is used in dangerous construction sites to make work easy, in automobile construction and in complex medical procedures. Have you considered reading or learning more about Robotics? The American Corner Agbogba has taken a keen interest in these future technologies. The U S Embassy Ghana in partnership with Mobile Web Ghana and powered by SEED Afrique Ghana introduced thirty-two (32) Junior High School students to a vein in STEM education ( Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) through robotics. The participating schools were: Ancilla Primary & Junior School and TI Ahmadiyya Junior High School. This workshop was held at the American Corner, Agbogba on 29th July,2022.
The workshop kicked-off with the director of Mobile Web Ghana, Florence Toffa emphasizing the need for students to be curious about their environment and technologies around them. She highlighted that this is the right time to get the youth involved in these new technologies. It will greatly help them to be innovators, creators and problem solvers. The time for them to start is now.
Kevin Brosnahan, a key principal U.S officer, Press Attachè – U.S Embassy Ghana gave the opening remarks. He stated “Robotics is one of the coolest human inventions. Ghana has many great resources and I think that her best resource is young people. You can change your country, Africa and the world at large. I know it’s sometimes challenging but you need to have a dream, make plans out of that dream and do well to make the most of the opportunities and resources being offered to you at the American Corner Agbogba.”
The workshop proceeded with Billy James Dega., Lead Instructor of SEED Afrique, enthusiastically engrossed the students to the Introduction to STEM & Robotics. This session was curated in a fun and engaging way for the kids to intuitively recognize and name out various robots they had come across in their daily activities at home, school and their community at large.
With the aim of developing their cognitive skills and instilling the habit of practical learning in collaborative learning, the students were placed into three different groups for their practical sessions under the categorization below:
- Robotics Assembling & Demo
- Electricity and Electronics
- Solar Robots
ROBOTICS ASSEMBLING & DEMO
The Robotics Assembling & Demo section was led by Michael Dzata. Such an exhilarating moment it was, the kids were introduced to scratch, a drag- and- drop, block based programming language that empowers children to create great projects. Michael instructed and guided the students in the understanding and assembling of the main components and automation of robots. The students were observed intriguingly building robots together with the coding of its movement under their instructor’s supervision.
ELECTRONICS AND ELECTRICITY
The kids had real-hands on experience in comprehending diverse electronic components comprising how they work together to produce different results. The electronics and electricity group was led by Christiana Maame Obubah, together with Joseph Asare. They engaged the students on the basics in electronics, circuit building, switches and 4+ circuits. The gadgets used in the electronic section were safe, no-risk of any electrical shock.
SOLAR ROBOTS
Solar powered robots have been envisioned by experts to be a sustainable answer to a cleaner, connected planet (https://rb.gy/dolmnu). Solar energy is virtually unlimited and one of the cleanest forms of renewable power. The students were taught how to build robots that are driven by the sun which makes absolute environmental sense at a time such as this in the combatting of climate change.
The program was educational, impactful and fun .The participants of the workshop expressed their excitement about the new knowledge and skills they gained. The students added that they plan to use the opportunity that has been provided by the U.S Embassy in collaboration with Mobile Web Ghana & SEED Afrique in the light of this new learning experience in STEM – Robotics to build their own robots to solve problems in the society.