WE HAD A GREAT TIME BUILDING WITH MURRAY’S 3RD GRADERS-
Brooklyn Robot Foundry was founded in 2011 (in Brooklyn), but because we’re new to the area, we wanted to give you a little insight into our philosophy.
Brooklyn Robot Foundry classes blend creativity, engineering, and hands-on learning in an environment where experimentation is celebrated, and setbacks are learning opportunities. Through building, students explore fundamental engineering concepts like circuits, mechanics, and design thinking while developing problem-solving skills, creative confidence, and the empowering knowledge that they can bring their ideas to life.
Our classes are immersive, and students are encouraged to tap into their imaginations as they build. While we teach a specific robot lesson, we remind students to follow their own creative path as they customize their creations. Sometimes this will mean a relatively close replica of the demonstration robot we’ve built, but more often it will mean something that does not resemble the original in any way – and we love that!
We have designed curricula to meet students at their developmental level. We intentionally build in opportunities for failure to teach children how to accept these occasions as a crucial part of engineering thinking. Trial and error, perseverance, and using new knowledge to troubleshoot are part of the process. While this may lead to frustration in the short term, our instructors guide students toward solutions, and in the long term, students feel empowered by this ability to use failure as a step toward success. We recognize that students may need more support than others, and that’s perfectly normal; everyone learns at their own pace.
There will be occasions when a student will choose not to complete their robot. While we do encourage the student to build, we respect their autonomy to choose what’s right for them. Likewise, sometimes a student will choose to build their robot in a way that wasn’t intended (and therefore may not work properly). We will offer advice and encourage students to get their robots functional, but we also accept and embrace these choices as part of their self-expression. The best thing to do is ask the children about what they’ve made and why they made those choices, to understand their vision.
The robots will likely break at some point after going home. We use simple materials, and this fragility is intentional. We want students to know they are empowered to fix their robots or to turn them into completely new creations (we’ve also included a post card with a troubleshooting checklist.) We purposefully provide kid-friendly craft materials and household items for building our robots so that children can replicate that at home. They may choose to add to their robot or build something completely from scratch using the parts and skills they’ve accumulated. That is the ultimate goal of the program – the enthusiasm and confidence to keep creating!
Thank you for having us!
Kim Haden, Owner
Brookyn Robot Foundry Lower Westchester