Petoi's amazing community never fails to amaze the world. This year alone, we've seen some huge strides made by our global community with Petoi robots at the center of them all. Today, we bring you another fantastic story spearheaded by Segun Akinyemi, a senior software engineer at Microsoft. Apart from writing some fabulous code for STEM education (take a quick peak at his GitHub), he also heads the "Microsoft Discover Day", a brilliant initiative by Microsoft Charlotte where students visit the campus as part of interactive field days. But these aren't just any field days, At Microsoft, they get to network with employees, explore careers, and take an active part in STEM activities.
The latest edition of Microsoft Discover Day saw students from Bailey Middle School visit the sprawling Microsoft campus in North Carolina. The event featured Segun demonstrating and teaching students 3 levels of programming with the help of Petoi Bittle X open source robot dog. The 3 levels of programming covered were:
- Serial Protocol
- Python Coding
- Prompt Engineering with AI
With just a few Bittle X smart robots, laptops (about one robot dog and one laptop for a group of 5 to 6 students), and a superbly delivered presentation, Segun ensured that each student got a first-hand look at how programming can be used to solve real problems during this interactive session. Segun used the programmable robot dog to walk students through the basics and some advanced concepts that lay the foundation for future hardware-software collaboration for these young minds!
Here is a video of the event:
What's amazing is that Segun also created a world-class robotics curriculum to teach these concepts to students. This curriculum introduces students to three distinct programming levels, each advancing in complexity and abstraction.
- Level 1: Immerse students in low-level programming by using direct commands to control Bittle X, providing hands-on exposure to foundational computing concepts.
- Level 2: High-Level Programming Languages shifts the focus to Python, demonstrating how high-level languages simplify and organize programming tasks while achieving the same outcomes as Serial Protocol.
- Level 3: AI Prompt Engineering explores the forefront of programming by enabling students to interact with machines through natural language commands, showcasing how AI translates human language into actionable tasks.
Together, these levels guide students from core computational principles to the cutting-edge future of programming. The full curriculum can be found here: Segun's Latest Robotics Curriculum on GitHub.
You can read more about the robotics curriculum, the materials needed, some background, and the expertise required to teach it along with the source code files, a resources guide, and the full presentation, make sure to take a look at Segun's website: 3 Levels of Programming Curriculum: Robotics for K12. A huge shoutout to Segun Akinyemi, for developing this robotics curriculum, documenting it, and making it available for free for any educator or student who wants to teach or learn it!
The strides made by the Petoi community this year showcase the power of collaboration and innovation in STEM education. From Reid's Raspberry Pi integration enabling Bittle to search for objects autonomously, to Omer's groundbreaking work making Bittle conversational with ChatGPT, the possibilities are limitless. These remarkable achievements continue to inspire educators and students globally. Segun's initiative at Microsoft Discover Day builds on this momentum, using Bittle to make programming accessible and exciting for middle school students. His world-class robotics curriculum not only equips students with foundational programming skills but also introduces them to advanced AI-driven technologies, teaching young minds how to code a robot in a fun and interactive way!
Want to enquire about Petoi's smart robots for robotics education? Petoi's special education pricing has got you covered. Just click on the image below to get in touch:
