Watch: The young Canadian robotics team building confidence through code
Education Manager Samantha Wong mentors a group of young engineers at The STEAM Project in Richmond Hill, Canada.
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00:00Our robotics team is made out of eight students.
00:05We have students from grade seven all the way to grade nine.
00:09We brought them together because I'm really passionate about robotics and empowering people.
00:15I think it's really important for kids to tinker, to build, and then to learn about different things with their hands and not just reading about it in a textbook.
00:25You don't have to be masters at robotics or electronics or coding. All they really have to have is the passion or the willingness to learn.
00:34My name is Sam. I'm the manager of the STEAM project and I also coach our FTC robotics team.
00:50STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.
00:54So that involves hands-on learning for kids.
00:57The students in our program are 11 to 14 and this is part of an extracurricular program outside of school hours.
01:05There's a wide range of kids that come.
01:08There are really young kids who are just learning about engineering and science.
01:14Then we have older kids that are joining us for our robotics team.
01:19I've always been interested in sciences.
01:22I was interested in law of bugs when I was a kid and then I got interested into anatomy and, more recently, technical sciences.
01:32I think it's very important, especially when you think of future, you think of flying cars and a good world.
01:39If you want robotics or science in general, then you have to improve those things as well.
01:47Science can impact the world.
01:55At the STEAM project, we teach about robotics, coding, and then it's awesome to see it come to life when we've visited Mari.
02:02I'm really excited for Alex to show us the different things that robotics can be.
02:09I'm a robotics software engineer and I program software for robots.
02:15The name of the company is called Mari.
02:17I shopped for Maple Advanced Robotics Inc.
02:21I'm excited to mentor kids because it's a way of diversifying our field.
02:28From my perspective, it's still male-dominant.
02:34I'm originally from Nanjing, China.
02:36My relatives always told me that girls shouldn't even touch technology.
02:41It's a guy thing.
02:43But it's still not true.
02:46Young girls, they need to build confidence in tech before all the bias and stereotypes hit them.
02:53I think children should start learning STEAM as soon as possible.
02:59It's a way of scientific thinking.
03:01It's a way of problem solving.
03:07They may not have everything that they need to know about robotics,
03:10but they're really interested in learning, coding, building the robot,
03:14as well as designing something from scratch,
03:17and then bringing it together for a final competition.
03:35The first tech challenge is a global competition.
03:38We're competing with teams within the Greater Toronto region.
03:42Our team is a little bit nervous because it's our first competition.
03:47The students aren't really sure what to expect.
03:50We've done as much prep work as we can.
03:53This year's FTC competition is all about moving samples and specimens
03:58found in the middle of our arena to different areas.
04:04Our team name is Tesla Titans.
04:07I was split into the build team.
04:10During the competition, I was one of the drivers, so I drove the arm.
04:16It's amazing to see as we've progressed through the season,
04:20the girls developed from not knowing anything about robotics
04:24to then understanding some parts of it, then being able to tweak and design things.
04:30In the end, we did lose the competition, which was sad, but I learned how to work with people.
04:37I learned so much.
04:39Part of the whole process in STEAM is that you fail.
04:47You try to make different changes.
04:49Whether that's with things like prototyping the shape of an intake system
04:55and changing the design by removing a certain part of it and then seeing it work.
05:02We teach the kids about growth mindset and that it's okay to fail.
05:07You try again.
05:09I'm really proud of what we accomplished.
05:12I think that there's a lot to still learn.
05:14My hope for the team members that I'm mentoring,
05:19that they're able to figure out ways to fix any problem and help others.
05:26My advice to young people who want to get into robotics is just to start.
05:33It doesn't matter if you know nothing about robotics.
05:36It's just about starting and then learning as you go.
05:44That's just your task at everything.
05:45It doesn't matter if you nggak to get into These I don't want to
