To address the increasing demand in science and engineering education, Moldovan public libraries started to focus their efforts on expanding the network of robotics clubs and creating more opportunities for children to explore and apply their programming skills.
On July 12, the National Children’s Library hosted a training of trainers in robotics for 11 library representatives from the Orhei Children’s Public Library, Glodeni Children’s Public Library and Chisinau Municipal Library “B.P. Hasdeu,” who have recently joined the network of robotics clubs, and equipped their libraries with robotics sets.
“Witnessing the young generation’s great interest in robotics and attending the Library Robo League contest hosted by the National Children’s Library, we got really excited to launch a robo club in our own library and join this great network of programmers,” mentioned Cristina Savin, trainer at Orhei Children’s Library.
During the interactive sessions on programming and robots’ hardware, the library representatives tested various programming techniques and developed a better vision on how to implement the service and spur more interest from teenagers. To give participants a better perspective on the main challenges encountered by children while programming the robots and help them address these issues, the National Children’s Library trainers engaged the library representatives in real-time robotics sessions for children.
“It was very useful for us to interact with the robo club members and learn how to break down programming into a simpler and more comprehensible language for our future robotics teams,” highlighted Tatiana Melenciuc, computer science teacher and volunteer at the Glodeni Children’s Library.
This training served as a great platform for robotics trainers to interact with each other and learn best practices in terms of building and programming robots. It also allowed the National Children’s Library coordinators to strengthen the network of robo clubs and ensure proper technical and organizational support for future initiatives.