Micro bites in robotics to enrich opportunities for YOUTH

"<< Background >>The main reason applying for this project was to understand the current situation of the the Youth about ICT, STEM and specially for robotics. As an organizer of different STEM and robotics competitions and teacher trainings, we have met a lot of teachers and have a good overview of possibilities in Schools, but as in the competitions, there are only few teams from Youth center this area is not known for us. If we have visited some youth centers, then we've seen, that they have some robotics equipment on the shelves, but we do not know whether those are used and how they are used. We have heard that there are lack of funding for different ICT equipment and if there is a project for getting funding for especially for ICT related equipment and material, then Youth center are afraid of applying. So the project idea was to understand the bottlenecks of the Youth centers not to be active on ICT related tasks and to understand the needs to change this situation. As normally the main problem is lack of funding, then we looked for cheap and simple yet powerful robotics solution that would be affordable for the Youth centers.<< Objectives >>The main idea was to get as much of information and understanding of the current situation in youth centers to take further steps to improve their situation.Our plan was to choose a cheap robotics kit to make robotics available in these organisations and to see whether this is the right tool to fit there.Micro:bit with modules was the one to run the project. We wanted to create Estonian and Latvian curriculum tasks for the youth centers and organisations dealing with young people and robotics to run tasks with Micro:bits and to implement fun and engaging robotics activities to the Youth centers.After finishing some amount of curriculum tasks the idea was to pilot some of the tasks among youth and to see how they will meet the concept and equipment.We wanted to make a simple webpage with curriculum tasks with fun activities that are easy to follow.Overall we wanted to achieve feasable results on implementing tasks, training and piloting to see if the concept suits for the Youth centers.<< Implementation >>We implemented a survey to collect information about current situation in Youth centers related to STEM, ICT and robotics activities - about equipment, willingness, competencies and bottlenecks.We conducted the survey collection by finding contacts on focusing Youth centers.We collected the results and analyzed them.We collected best practices in Latvia and Estonia on robotics and ICT activities towards Youth.We made a Research and Best practice study and made a Report/Handbook about it.We made a Webpage containing curriculum tasks for using Micro:bits in fun and engaging way with block progamming and python programming language for older and/or more advanced Youth.We made a Teacher training in Latvia and Estonia.We piloted MicroBites curriculum tasks in Youth centers and organisations dealing with youth in Estonia and Latvia.We shared results and ideas in Multiplier events in Latvia and Estonia.<< Results >>Research and Best practice study document - ""MAPPING ICT AND ROBOTICS IN ESTONIAN AND LATVIAN YOUTH CENTERS AND INSTITUTIONS DEALING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE"".Webpage with curriculum tasks and project results.Curriculum tasks."