FabLab Junior: a home for budding makers
Have you ever "played" fruit? Or created a mind-blowing animation? Do you know the Ozobots? What about Lego Mindstorms? If you are passionate about STEAM Education, robotics and technology in general and you are no taller than 1.50 metres, there is great news! FabLab Junior by Casa Corsini, a space dedicated to creative technology for children and teenagers, in the name of scientific education and innovation.
A real Toyland for lovers of maker culture like Nanny who went to peek at the laboratory for you in recent days.
The FabLab (first of all, remember what is a FabLab? You can review it in the glossary below!) is a colorful and stimulating space where you can give vent to your creativity through tools for budding makers such as 3D printers, Ozobot collections, robotic Legos, LED circuits, electronic boards, conductive ink and so on and so forth. It is a unique place of its kind because it is public - therefore accessible to all - and intertwined with the FabLab “for adults” already existing at Casa Corsini, thus becoming a real point of reference for local technological community. It is in fact integrated into the network of municipal services and will therefore be available to families, schools, playrooms and local libraries.
Here the Nanny had a very special role: it was a sultry afternoon some time ago, when she had a flash of genius. In such a creative place like Casa Corsini, why not give space to little inventors by creating a space entirely reserved for them? A space where you can find STEAM games and tools that would otherwise be difficult to find and are often very expensive, where you can collaborate with other boys and girls under the guidance of highly trained and passionate educators who are always ready to take on new challenges.
Thus the idea of the FabLab Junior was born and a long planning process began between several minds together with the staff of the Lumen association, which finally came to fruition last month with the inauguration of the space.
The laboratory is open to everyone and will regularly host courses and workshops in coding, robotics, 3D printing and modeling, pixel art, video making and tinkering: the aim is to introduce even the littlest ones to scientific subjects in a creative way, training computational thinking and creating a community of very young innovators.
Not only that: to guarantee educational continuity and spread an innovative scientific culture as much as possible, ample space will be dedicated to the training of teachers and educators so that they are able to understand the potential of new technologies, integrating them more and more into their school programs.
The most recent course ended a few days ago and was conducted by Tata! Together with her, elementary and middle school teachers were able to understand the potential of tools such as Ozobot and Cubetto, they saw how a robot is made and explored computer programming with Lego Mindstorms and, finally, they were able to indulge themselves with a selection of very captivating. Take a look at the photos below!
Photo Facebook Casa Corsini
All this would not have been possible, however, without the determination of the guys at Lumen< /strong>, a cultural association that manages the Casa Corsini program and with which Tata has actively collaborated in recent years, the motivation for the Municipality of Fiorano Modenese which embraced the project and the generosity of the < a href="www.fondazione-crmo.it" target="_blank">Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, who financed it.
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GLOSSARY OF ROBOTICS AND MORE
FabLab: literally Fabrication Laboratory, it is a sort of digital workshop where you can find everything you need for the creation of technological artefacts. It is a space open to all, equipped with equipment that is often expensive for individual users, but also and above all a place of sharing, a meeting point for makers and enthusiasts where they can collaborate on the creation of innovative projects. A Fab Lab simply cannot be missing: 3D printers, laser cutters, cutting machines and highly sophisticated design software. However, Fab Labs are also and above all
Educational robotics: is an educational approach to the world of technology and robotics, easily integrated into school curricula. Through the use of robots and fun games, boys and girls learn the basics of computer programming and computational logic, fundamental knowledge for facing the future;
3D printer: imagine drawing an object, inserting it into a printer and obtaining a concrete object. Here, the principle of 3D printers is a bit like this, with the difference that, instead of pen and paper, the drawings are created with specific computer design software. The device will then process the project created and will provide a very faithful three-dimensional reproduction. Brilliant, isn't it?
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