STEM Camp Adds Drones and Robots

TEKintellect Robotix Workshops, which hosts STEM after-school classes and camps across New York City, is adding two new programs to its summer camps. The STEM summer camps in Manhattan will now offer Aeronautics with drones and Scratch Software teaching robots programs.

With a focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), TEKintellect Robotix Workshops hosts after-school classes at 35 schools and summer camps across New York City using Legos, robots, and other technology. The 3-year-old company will introduce two new programs using robots and drones to its summer camps this year.

The camp’s robot program uses an Aisoy1 robot to teach campers the MIT-developed software languages Scratch and Python. Aisoy1 is a programmable social robot made in Spain and interacts using those programs. Kids can develop their own games and videos using the computer software.

Campers in the aeronautics class will use NASA-developed teaching materials to control drones with cameras to demonstrate flight. Kids will learn about aerodynamics and aeronautics concepts to get them excited about aviation and understand how planes and drones fly.

Founder Tsvi Katsir says hands-on learning is the best way for kids to retain more information. “People yearn for hands-on education that involves multi-sensory experimentation because the best way to learn is to use more senses,” he says. “The more you’re involved, the more your memory retains the information that you have learned.”

TEKintellect offers four summer camps throughout Manhattan, at which kids can participate in classes such as Lego Technic to build machine models; Lego WeDo to build and operate Lego machines with sensors using a software program to sequence moves; and Mindstorm to teach a robot, built and programed by the kids, how to navigate an obstacle course.

Registration is open for the summer camps and run from 8:45am-3:30pm, Monday-Friday from July 6-Aug. 8 at the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, and Lower East Side locations, and from June 22-July 31 at the Union Square location.

Above photo: Two girls learn about centrifugal and centripetal forces by building a Ferris wheel together.