Creating a fun, learning environment for children in Eldorado Park
Janice Beckett-Msiza, Department of Education, Eldos TV, Eldorado Park First Lego League Robotics and Coding Programm, LegoSA.
“This program is scheduled to pilot in 33 schools nationwide by the Department of Education. Eldorado Park is sadly not selected as part of this program, therefore in partnership with First Robotics SA, we have decided to introduce this program to the children of Eldorado Park through Eldos TV,” said Alicia Solomons who is a coach for the Eldorado Park First Lego League Robotics and Coding Programme.
The 3 programmes are as follows:
- The Discovery programme is targeted at children aged 4 to 7 and is based on basic Early Childhood Development learning. The activities motivate the children to explore science, technology, engineering, art and math in a fun way.
- The Explore programme is targeted at children aged 7 to 9 and is focused on the fundamentals of engineering as they explore real-world problems, learn to design, code and problem solve. This enhances the child’s ability in cognitive thinking.
- The Challenge programme is targeted at children aged 10 to 16 and teaches the art of friendly competition. The children will engage in research, problem-solving, coding, engineering – building and programming a Lego robot that navigates the various missions of a robot game.
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Solomons along with Randolph Yarrow who coaches the Challenge Programme shared that their free programmes are held at the Don Mateman Hall every Saturday. The programme officially started on September 4 and caters to 54 children from the community.
Due to the limited resources and coaches, the team has a waiting list that keeps increasing every week. According to Solomons, all the coaches have been trained by UNISA and have their certificates to coach.
“It’s a great programme because it takes what the children don’t like learning in school and puts it in a fun aspect. It challenges the children with problem solving, they need to think creatively. We thought that the children won’t be so interested in it because of the maths and physics but they just keep coming every weekend,” added Solomons.
After ten to twelve sessions, each age group will have a celebration event where the children will get to showcase what they’ve done, they will also be receiving certificates.
“The potential that we’ve seen in the children is amazing. The children are so excited, they never want to leave our sessions,” said Yarrow.
Some local businesses have gotten involved and sponsor the children with something to eat during the sessions and the team is now looking for more businesses to get involved. Next year the team would like to assist at the different schools, maybe offer the programmes as an extra mutual activity, that way they will be able to cater to more children.
“Most of the parents stay at the sessions to see what their children are doing; some will send us photos and videos of their children at home doing projects. This programme is growing faster than we expected but it is just so amazing. We are encouraging more people especially parents to get involved and go for the training,” concluded Solomons.
If you would like to know more about the programmes you can contact Alicia Solomons via email: Alicia@eldostv.co.za, or 063 393 3301 or the Eldostv whatsapp number: 083 416 0733
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