GRUNDFOS FOUNDATION RESEARCH Experimenting is an opportunity for progress At the House of Natural Science in Bjerringbro, children get to play around with technology. This is where Karsten Thorkild Sørensen, an experienced primary school science teacher receives them. He guides school children visiting the hou- se as they explore science and technology in a very hands-on way. The House of Natural Sciences offers school classes a number of trainings, and one of them, focused on 2nd graders, is based on the LEGO WeDo System. The pupils build a LEGO robot named Milo, and use block programming to make it blink, move around, or make sounds. - We’ve built a training course around Milo with a very strong narrative that the children can really relate to. In K arsten Thorkild Sørensen guides school children visiting the House of Natural Science Photo: John Kristoffersen the story, their pet gets sick, and the challenge is to evolve the robot into an animal ambulance to get their pet to the vet, says Karsten. The children release their imagination within a fixed universe and develop creative solutions which are evaluated, then redeveloped and improved. The it- erative process also caters for inspiration and learning between the groups. Equipped for the future Through play, children obtain skills they will need later in life. - They get a sense of real life and how development works in tech companies that work relentlessly to develop new, improved versions of existing products like smartphones and cars. 8-year-olds can easily relate to those things and they are actually very curious, says Karsten. Playing at solutions A playful approach is a key component in courses at the House of Natural Sciences. In the WeDo course, play lets children familiarise with the programming language and challenges their research skills in a subtle way. They Facts: LEGO WeDo WeDo was developed by LEGO Education and consists of hardware, software and teaching materials allowing children to build a robot that reacts to its environment through a sensor. It tickles the curiosity of children, chal- lenges their problem-solving capabilities and creativity, allowing them to develop skills within technology, programming, and science. learn that it is not possible to fail – on the contrary: Finding weaknesses in your solution is good because it is ultimately an opportunity to improve. Test it, learn, and try again - Each time children try something new, test it and retry, they learn something new which they can build on. The 44
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