Another summer vacation has begun! What should we let the kids play with this summer? Learning, traveling, summer camps… Must have, but we can also play with something different! By combining graphical programming with main control boards, sensors, and various electronic components, we can create interesting maker projects and become little makers this summer! Our maker journey starts with lighting up the first LED light! We can also take a look at simple and easy-to-understand Python code. The programming journey starts from Hello world! Let’s have fun with Arduino & Python!
Play with Arduino
1. About Arduino
With the rise of open-source culture and the maker movement, Arduino has become a convenient and flexible open-source electronic tool that is easy to learn and has gained popularity among electronic enthusiasts. More and more professional software and hardware developers are starting to use Arduino to develop projects and products; major universities have also begun to offer Arduino related courses in automation and software majors. Due to the integration of the maker movement and education, Arduino has become a new course integrated into the science learning curriculum for primary and secondary school students. In these courses, Arduino serves as a tool for children to innovate and create on their own; as long as you have an idea, you can work hard to realize it.
2. About Arduino Programming Courses
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Hardware is open-source, convenient and fast—As long as you have ideas and creativity, you can start your innovation journey by purchasing Arduino control boards, wires, sensors, and various electronic components online.
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Graphical programming is easy to learn—Ardublock or Mixly graphical programming software allows students in fourth grade and above to start learning programming and control the Arduino board to achieve control over electronic components.
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Can be an extension of robot building courses—Robot building courses mainly cultivate children’s hands-on abilities and interest in technology, suitable for preschool and early elementary school students. The Arduino course uses graphical programming combined with hardware, suitable for upper elementary school students to learn and enhance their comprehensive abilities.
3. Why Play with Arduino
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Development of comprehensive abilities—By combining programming with various electronic components, children learn to write and control programs, understand electronic circuits, and learn the principles and uses of different components. In the learning process, children need to think about projects, write their own programs, connect circuits, and debug them… Ultimately, they can create interesting maker projects, such as simple calculators, automatic watering machines, and welcoming robots… All kinds of projects can be created by their own hands and applied to life.
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Rich official competitions—In an era of mass innovation, progress can only be achieved through innovation. Children can unleash their imagination, create, and the designs they produce can participate in various official competitions. The National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition, the China Youth Robot Competition, the “Children Create the Future” National Youth Artificial Intelligence Innovation Challenge, the National Youth Creative Programming and Intelligent Design Competition, the National Primary and Secondary School Information Technology Innovation and Practice Competition, and the “Tomorrow’s Little Scientist” competition all have creative innovation competition projects waiting for you to challenge!
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National Robot Level Examination—Children can participate in the National Robot Level Examination, which is a social evaluation project initiated by the China Electronics Society aimed at assessing the robot technology ability of young people.
4. What to Play in Arduino Courses
Application of wires, resistors, breadboards, LED lights, and various sensors, creating interesting projects through programming control!
Hey! Let’s watch an interesting video to understand Arduino projects!
Let’s design and make an Apple-picking game machine!
Playing with Python Programming
1. About Python
When it comes to coding, you may have heard of C++, C language, JAVA and other languages. With the official announcement from Zhejiang Province, Python will officially be included in the college entrance examination! Python’s popularity has exploded in social media.
Python is a programming language that has become popular in recent years. It is simple, clear, elegant, and easy to understand, making it a favorite among programming beginners. As a high-level programming language, it greatly improves programming efficiency without having to consider low-level details. In the IT industry, Python has become one of the most commonly used languages.
2. Why Learn Python
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Python programming has entered the Zhejiang Province college entrance examination syllabus—Starting from 2018, the programming language in Zhejiang Province’s information technology textbooks has been changed to Python, and Python has also entered the primary school textbooks in Shandong Province, allowing elementary school students to start learning Python. In the process of artificial intelligence gradually entering our lives, learning programming languages is a trend.
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Rich programming competitions—National Youth Creative Programming and Intelligent Design Competition, National Primary and Secondary School Information Technology Creative and Practical Competition, and other official competitions have Python competition projects waiting for you to challenge!
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Python has been included in the National Computer Level Examination—From 2018 onwards, Python has been added as a subject in the National Computer Level Examination.
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Python is widely used—Major internet companies at home and abroad use Python to complete various tasks.
Helping schools and institutions implement Arduino & Python courses
With the development of programming education, Arduino and Python have become mainstream courses in children’s programming education. Following the trend, children’s programming courses are being vigorously developed in schools and training institutions across the country. However, in the actual operation and teaching process, operators and teachers in institutions have encountered bottlenecks to varying degrees.
As a new subject, where does our teaching content come from, what kind of content is suitable for students to learn, and what abilities should our teachers possess? Various questions are presented before us. Programming courses themselves have a certain degree of dullness, so interesting course content and systematic course planning become particularly important. As a programming teacher, one needs to understand programming, electronic circuit knowledge, be familiar with various electronic components, and have good teaching skills. Therefore, good course content and teacher training have become paramount for schools and institutions to implement children’s programming courses.
1. Maker Childhood Programming Course Content
Maker Childhood Robotics is committed to the teaching and research of children’s programming courses, advocating the use of recorded dual-teacher models to improve teacher training efficiency and enhance teaching quality, helping schools and institutions solve the challenges of course and teacher training. Since May 2018, Maker Childhood has launched the “Learn Arduino with Your Kids” and “Learn Python with Your Kids” series of courses, providing course services within the industry.
Currently, these two courses have been launched on various course platforms: Qianliao live, Tencent Classroom, Netease Cloud Classroom, iQIYI·Ai Classroom, and LeTV. The courses have consistently ranked first in the children’s programming section across various platforms, with a cumulative view count of over 100,000 and serving more than 20,000 teachers and students.
“Learn Arduino with Your Kids” plans for 8 chapters, totaling 80 classes, suitable for children in fourth grade and above; “Learn Python with Your Kids” plans for 21 chapters, totaling 100 classes, suitable for children in fifth grade and above.
The courses are updated in a serialized manner, with a frequency of one new lesson per week. The course PPT for each lesson will be published on the Maker Childhood Robotics WeChat official account for everyone to learn and exchange. Each lesson is accompanied by a carefully recorded explanatory video, which is also updated in Qianliao live.
2. Maker Childhood Programming Course Features
Maker Childhood officially opened course cooperation and franchising to the industry in December 2018, providing Arduino and Python programming courses to schools and institutions nationwide, helping them quickly implement children’s programming courses.
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Originating from the front lines of children’s programming teaching, tested by teaching practice, suitable for primary and secondary school teaching, practical.
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A systematic course that progresses step by step, with each lesson being a small project to enhance children’s interest in learning.
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Each lesson is equipped with carefully recorded explanatory videos. The combination of PPT courseware and explanatory videos greatly improves teachers’ self-study, lesson preparation efficiency, and the effectiveness of in-school teacher training. Conducted in a recorded dual-teacher model, with videos serving as teaching tools to compensate for teachers’ professional shortcomings, thereby lowering professional requirements for teachers. In class, teachers can play videos according to their classroom needs, focusing more on increasing interactivity and enhancing fun.
3. Maker Childhood Course Franchise Cooperation Introduction:
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Cooperation Courses: “Learn Arduino with Your Kids” & “Learn Python with Your Kids”
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The course is fully open and transparent online (unlike previous closed sales models), released in installments. All previously published courses can be viewed in advance through our WeChat official account, and the content of the PPT courseware can be understood, while course videos can also be watched in Qianliao live.
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Arduino course with 80 classes, Python course with 100 classes, includes PPT courseware + source code package for each lesson + free access to all online supporting videos and commercial usage rights (recorded videos for offline auxiliary teaching).
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Purchase supporting equipment through the Maker Childhood Robotics WeChat official account for an 15% discount.
To learn more about the courses, please scan the QR code below.
Maker Childhood Main Teacher—Teacher Peanut’s personal WeChat
For course cooperation inquiries, please add WeChat.
Continue to follow the course updates, please scan the QR code above.