From September to October 2024, York Region Educational Services collaborated with Markham’s Welcome Centre Immigrant Services to deliver six engaging LEGO Robotics workshops for students from grades 2 to 5. Each session offered a unique blend of hands-on building and coding challenges that empowered young minds and encouraged critical thinking processes.

The students were split into pairs, each possessing a laptop and a LEGO Education SPIKE kit to explore. Interactive lessons were led by our teachers prompting the students to construct a variety of programmable robots with increasing difficulty. Some examples include a robotic rhino, a delivery cart, and a quality checker. Once the builds were completed, the students learned how to connect and control their robot through Scratch—a beginner-friendly programming platform. These workshops gave students the freedom to experiment and change their program as desired, customizing the code for each robot and offering a stimulating experience.

LEGO Robotics at the Welcome Centre was a truly rewarding experience! Seeing the kids excited to discover new LEGO builds and Scratch codes each week was extremely fulfilling. It was also amazing to watch them add their own unique touch to both the robots and the code. A huge shoutout to Christina who leads the program – her energy and friendliness created a fun, engaging environment for both the kids and myself. Overall, it was a great opportunity to support such an awesome program 🙂

— ZhenYan Lin, Project Coordinator / Teaching Assistant @ YRES

A remarkable aspect of these workshops was witnessing how LEGO Robotics transcended language barriers. Many students had difficulty speaking and understanding English, which initially posed challenges in communication and delivering instructions. Nevertheless, the students worked well together to build and program their robots, discovering ways to communicate through gestures and curiosity!

— Christina Wan, Project Coordinator / Teaching Assistant @ YRES

Interested in bringing a LEGO Robotics program to your community or organization? Visit the YRES website for more information!