Education

BYOR Education

A very constructive learning process

Lessons for ages 7-15
Motivation by building your own ideas
Possible in 1 afternoon or with a lot more depth
Reuse (free) materials
Design thinking with different roles
Reuse parts in different creations

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BYOR | Build Your Own Robot is designed for education. BYOR can be applied in many different ways and at different levels of education. For example, in the form of a workshop, a series of lessons conducted by BYOR staff or employees of the school, or during a study day. The higher the level, the more emphasis is placed on the different steps in the design process. BYOR is an ideal tool for turning ideas into reality in a short time within this process. To get started yourself as a primary or secondary school teacher, various teaching materials and supporting documentation and videos are available.

Quick success and yet a lot of depth

Because the components of BYOR work straight out of the box and easily connect to each other, students can quickly experience success with BYOR. After this initial boost, you can go in-depth in several ways: by applying design thinking with the design cycle and through adding and programming the micro:bit-chip. The BYOR kits come standard with lesson aids. The Schoolkit comes with enough parts for 8 students to work simultaneously and provides (digital) access to the expansive lesson aids. The starter-kit comes with enough parts for 4 students to work simultaneously and standard lesson aids.

Programming

Programming with the BYOR kit is easy because all components respond to the same signal. So controlling a light is as easy as controlling the various motors. As a result, programming steps can be taken quickly. Programming with BYOR is done via the widely praised Micro:bit. This is a separate chip that you connect to your Easyboard (brain). From the moment the Micro:bit is connected, the Micro:bit takes over the BYOR brain and starts executing your self-made code. The Micro:bit can read BYOR's gates and control them via code. Creating code is super easy with Micro:bit. For more information, see the video below or the programmer manual on the support page.
Because there are immediate physical results in different ways, new possibilities for connecting components become apparent. For example, the code for a blinking light can also make a servo motor go back and forth. This stimulates creativity in the many applications of programming. The extensive teaching materials in the schoolkit contain 5 lessons about creative programming that use the combination of Micro:bit and BYOR to its fullest potential.

Intrinsic motivation

Having created their own robot with a self-conceived functions, the students are motivated to make this robot respond exactly as they want it to. They can do this by diving into the code and tuning the robot exactly to perform its function perfectly.

Design Thinking in Education

With the BYOR kit, students ages 8 and up can (quickly) build their own working robots. Workshops and lessons with BYOR follow the principles of design thinking using the design cycle to provide an in-depth learning experience. Students start thinking for themselves about their target audience, the context in which their design will be used, the preconditions of their design, etc. They brainstorm and make design sketches. The prototypes they build are assessed by their peers and in some cases actually tested with the target group! At the end of the cycle, the design and test results are presented to the rest of the group.
Because the students work independently in groups, this process lends itself perfectly to learning 21st century skills!

Idea for makerspace and rapid prototyping techniques

The BYOR parts are designed to be easily attached to anything. This way students can craft a real working robot themselves with cardboard, but BYOR also lends itself perfectly to maker education. Design (parts of) your creation with the laser cutter or 3D printer to embed more challenge into the maker process. Ideal if you have access to a makerspace. If you do have a makerspace: on our support page several 3D files are downloadable for free.

Sustainability

Recycle scrap materials into construction materials for BYOR. Next to used cardboard and other (free of charge) craft materials, old appliance parts, for example, can also be used to give the creation a certain look. Creativity and recycling go hand in hand. Let the students collect materials themselves at home to make them more aware of waste and recycling. You can even add our solar expansion set to power your upcycled creations with renewable energy.
Sustainability is what sparked the creation of BYOR, check out Our mission.

Teaching materials

For ages 8 and up, all sets come with role cards. These cards describe the role of the student within his group during the design process. The different roles are: Designer, Engineer and Salesman. They mostly follow the same process except for some specific steps for their role. For example, the Engineer makes a technical drawing while the Designer makes a design sketch and the Salesperson makes an advertisement (poster). For the teacher, a sheet is included to guide the process.

The series of lessons

In addition to the role cards, the school kit includes access to a series of lessons. These make it easy to teach the most fun design and programming lessons. The lesson guides and workbooks explain exactly when to take which steps and how to add depth to the learning experience. Of course, you can also use them for inspiration to design BYOR lessons yourself. There are 5 lessons on design-based learning and 5 lessons on creative programming. The lessons are for late primary and early secondary education.

BYOR education downloads

Convince yourself and your team about the benefits of BYOR

BYOR-Schoolkit

A big set for with access to all lesson materials

6 inputs, 6 outputs, 2x Eayboard (brain). Incl. all necessary accessories, extra's and lesson materials

€349,00