The Lab - A Coding School Backed By Highly Trained Professionals
Parrot Mambo Fly, suitable for indoor flying
Ever since I watched this documentary about Drones in China during my trip with AJ to Shanghai last year, I have been on the lookout for Drone lessons for him. It isn’t because I want him to master Drone Flying or even Drone Programming, it is more of giving him the exposure and letting him experience flying and programming one.
Though drones are getting more and more affordable, learning how to manoeuvre a drone is far more fun and important than just plainly flying one. It is a whole new world filled with challenges to exercise one’s mental faculty, very much a combo of computational thinking and mental adrenaline exercise. Professional drone flying is such a big thing in China that the industry even imposed regulations that users have to pass drone flying licence in order to fly one. In fact, Drone university programs are already starting to pop up all over the world to educate the next generation of pilots. It is indeed a growing industry!
Last June holiday, AJ had the opportunity to try programming a drone and flying it in The Lab. In this workshop, students explored the role as an aerodynamics engineer. They learned the mechanics of a drone, how to fly a drone safely and they were also introduced to manipulate a drone flight through coding.
AJ, using The Lab's portal to do programming.
The portal enables both parents and teachers to observe individual child's progress.
The Lab has a pretty impressive core team, with Dr. Oka Kurniawan, a Senior Lecturer for Singapore University of Technology and Design, being the Curriculum Specialist. Checking out their website, you’ll notice the team is a group of highly trained professionals, leaders in their own fields, with many years of experience in education and technology.
The learning environment in The Lab is unlike most of the enrichment centres. As seen on the photos below, the Lab is modeled on the idea of a playground to achieve a technology-rich experience for children. In a playground, children move and explore, they invent games and stories and they collaborate with peers and negotiate conflicts. They are supervised by adults throughout, but they lead their own experience.
The open concept layout is the expression of an educational philosophy that promotes a high level of autonomy for students, who are being given responsibility towards their own learning progression. The tables are structured in groups of 4 and 8 to increase collaboration with peers. Seating arrangement is flexible, and so it allows students to choose where they work and with whom. It also allows them to change their location and positions as needed.
AJ has enjoyed the Drone Flying and programming session but there are still a few programmes in The Lab he hasn't had the chance to explore. We certainly hope that, if time permits, and should there be any more advanced courses, we could be back again.
The Lab is running some holiday programmes coming September, and I think one of the best ways to check if an enrichment centre suits the child is through attending these short courses, holiday programmes or trial classes. If you would like to sign your child up for Drones, Robotics or Animation for September holiday programmes, kindly click on this link to sign up. The Lab also offers free trial class on their regular programmes, so if you are intending to try their regular classes instead, click on this link to register your interest.
The Lab
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