Robot Learning

by Aaron Boulding
in Advice for New Dads · Featured · Learning
— 6 Apr, 2012

We stumbled across this video clip that appeared to be about a stuffed animal’s trip across the country and, upon further investigation, discovered it was a bold new attempt to improve education.

In essence, fifth graders at two schools (one in Montreal and one in Los Angeles) were told that this is a robot that needs to travel from Canada to LA so she can find her space ship and get home. The kids at each school were to use their math, science and writing skills to tell the story of this robot’s journey. It seems that in writing about the journey the students had to apply their understanding of geography, Canadian/American history and other skills so that the journey is believable and based on reality. The twist here is that they students would actually see the results of their writing thanks to a production team that was following the students’ “directions” in the real world as close to real time as possible. They were out photographing and producing content around the robot so they students could see the results of the stories they were writing.

The entire thing is fascinating.

Robot Heart Stories: Laika’s Journey from Reboot Stories on Vimeo.

Robot Heart Stories is the name of this particular project under the Reboot Stories umbrella of projects looking to make lasting innovations in education. To get a full understanding of how this project is supposed to change things, we encourage you to get the full Reboot Stories background on Robot Heart Stories. Every parent believes in the importance of education and wants to see their children do well. Somehow, though, graduation rates are slipping and American grade schoolers are falling behind their Asian and European peers. Education spending is consistently at the top of every state’s budget and everybody everywhere emphasizes spending more. Out-of-the-box thinking is frowned upon in favor of pounding more math and science into students’ minds. So our question is this: What kind of value would you place on projects like Robot Heart Stories? Sound off in the comments or to @playgrounddad on Twitter.