Small Robotics

Small robotics – big future

About the project

For over 20 years, our volunteers have been regularly visiting hospitalized children in hospitals, spending time with them playing games, engaging in conversations, doing creative activities, and more. They act as friends from the outside world, allowing the children to momentarily forget about their hospitalization and troubles.

The time children have to spend in the hospital can be full of traumatizing experiences due to the hospital environment and their illness, but it can also be full of boredom and loneliness, especially in the evening hours. Children are taken away from their regular lives, from school, friends, and family environment, and cannot lead a normal life.

During our hospital visits, we like to use the time spent with the children for their education in programming, robotics, and informatics. The sooner children learn to use technology, understand its principles, and comprehend how it works, the better they will be prepared for the future that awaits them. We help them adapt to the world of technology now, in a fun way, through games. We believe that a playful form without exams and tests, without the need to participate when a child is not in the mood, without the threat of losing money on expensive courses, and at an ideal time when the child has no other program, is our unique recipe for success.

Our project offers a unique solution to the problem of insufficient education for children in IT fields. While schools do teach programming and informatics, we believe that children should engage with this subject much more. There are courses, clubs, and camps focused on this topic, but they are usually paid, and hospitalized children cannot attend them due to their stay in the hospital.

Among our volunteers, we have experts from the IT sector, education, and pedagogy who have extensive experience in implementing various projects for children. Through collaboration with similar organizations and paid courses, we are gradually expanding our team of volunteers and training them to educate better in a playful way using robotic toys. These volunteers then pass on their knowledge to new volunteers, children (sometimes even their parents) in hospitals and camps.

The main goal of the entire project is to teach children the basics of programming, robotics, and enhance their technical and mathematical skills, guide them towards analytical and critical thinking, and strengthen their problem-solving abilities through effective time management and playful methods.

We also aim to make robotics and programming accessible to children in Slovakia and spark their interest in these fields. During the implementation of various activities with children, we strive to ignite their curiosity and acquire the necessary knowledge, give them the opportunity to work with the latest robotic toys, understand logical and analytical thinking, learn the basics of programming, internet safety, and critical thinking.

Our plan is to continue our activities and ideally expand to other cities in Slovakia. We already have experience in teaching robotics during our regular hospital visits and camps, and we plan to continue this trend in the future.

The results

We managed to do 165 robotics workshops in hospitals, kindergartens and crisis centres. In total, we introduced 705 children to the world of robotics and computer science. We collected feedback through questionnaires. We received 248 of them.

Through a step-by-step evaluation of our project, we found that for 60% of the children, our workshop was their first experience with a robotic toy. 96% of the children would like to do similar activities in the future and the same number of children declared their interest to try another robotic toy 89% of the children marked our workshop as great/bomb in the questionnaire. 95% of the children who had no previous experience with a robotic toy want to try other robotic toys after our workshop.

Within the framework of this project, we organised two summer camps with a total of 84 children participating. One camp was conducted for children with cancer and one for children with cardiac disease. Both camps were intended for children from all over Slovakia. During the camps we focused on the topics of robotics and informatics, digital literacy, internet safety, analytical and logical thinking. The camps were free of charge for the children, including accommodation and food, and their safety was taken care of by a doctor at all times. Our volunteers took care of the program for the children. We also organized workshops with several organizations during the camp.

During our workshops we tried to introduce children to robotics, computer science and the basics of programming in a playful way through purchased robotic toys. The children were fully and happily engaged in the workshops and were keen to continue developing in this area and acquiring further skills and knowledge. Based on the feedback from the questionnaires, we found that almost all the children were interested in further robotics workshops, they would like to try other robotic toys, they rated our workshop as great/bomb and they enjoyed working with the toys very much. For 60% of the children our workshop was their first experience with robotics.

Our volunteers continue to run regular robotics workshops in the children’s wards.
We would like to start collaborations with other organizations that are working on the topic of robotics and computer science. We regularly post the results of our project on social media and on our website.

Summer Camps

Our annual camps are very popular among children. In 2023 we organized 40 robotics workshops at the camps, you can see what it looked like in the video below.

Feedback

Here are some responses from the questionnaires to the question: “What did you like about today’s activity ?”

Children

I liked absolutely everything. It was fun and challenging at the same time. In short, I enjoyed it. (male, 17r)

I could discover new things, I had the opportunity to meet new people and I had a lot of fun. (female, 13r)

I learned how to use the robot, it was fun. (female, 15r)

It was interesting to try something new and I liked it when I was good at it. (female, 13r)

I liked that we were learning how to work with robots and programming. (female, 13r)

That I could use my creativity to build a robot, new technology, but unfortunately I didn’t have time to try everything that was available. (male, 18r)

Everything about controlling the robot, it was something new. (male, 7r)

It was great that the robot could be controlled, that it could walk. (female, 7r)

The teachers allowed me to go into the corridor and I built a long track with them. (Male, 11r)

The car could go fast and in different directions. It was more grown up and interesting. (Female, 8r)

I learned new things, it was super fun. (female, 16r)

My friend and I built a track with corners. (female, 11r)

We liked everything, it was great. (male, 5r)

I liked the way we composed and programmed. (female, 14r)

Archery in virtual reality. (male, 14r)

Giving commands to robots with coloured markers. (male, 14r)

It was fun controlling the robot via phone and voice. (male, 8r)

I built a circle with the help of the adults and the car went round and round. It went fast and slow. (female, 8r)

I pushed the buttons and the bee moved. We got a chessboard and there I was figuring out paths. I had to concentrate. (male, 6yrs)

Parents, teachers, educators

The children do not encounter robotic toys much in kindergarten, it was a diversification of educational activities for them. (Kindergarten teacher)

The children were able to try out new toys that they did not know from regular shops. They were very interested, they forgot where they were. (Mother of a hospitalized 8-year-old boy)

I liked that the children were still engaged in the activities, that there were more activities, that there were interactive activities and that the children had fun doing them. (Kindergarten teacher)

Absolutely everything, positive experience with the robots in the hospital. (Mother of a hospitalized 6 yr old boy)

I would welcome similar activities in primary school. (Mother of a hospitalized 8r boy)

Interactivity, the possibility to involve every child, new unfamiliar toys and their possibilities. (Kindergarten teacher)

Fun for the child, son was happy and smiling, lending the robot to another child. (Mother of a hospitalized 5 yr old boy)

My little girl was totally caught up in it, she enjoyed it very much. (Mother of a hospitalized 3r girl)

I like the fact that you make the children’s stay in hospital more interesting. We didn’t know about this activity and it really made the little one happy. (Mother of a hospitalized 8r boy)

My son didn’t want to leave and was absolutely thrilled. I liked the approach, the creativity, the imaginative. (Mother of a hospitalized 5r boy)

The smile on the face of the little patients. (Mother of a hospitalized 7r boy)

My daughter liked the robot the best. Folding the paper was great, she made a fighter jet. (Mother of a hospitalized 4r girl)

The approach, the creativity, the fun for the kids. (Mother of a hospitalized 6r boy)

Creative thinking when they created different obstacles for the robot to handle, slalom, parking. My son really enjoyed today. (Mother of hospitalized 8r boy)

Award

Our project Little Robot – Big Future was awarded the special prize Srdce na dlani 2023 by the Trenčín Volunteer Centre. The award was received by the coordinator of the department in Považská Bystrica and the coordinator’s advocate Martina Štefanková.

Srdce na dlani is an award for exceptional volunteers, both individuals and collectives, for their voluntary activities carried out for the benefit of others in various areas of social life, community development, environmental protection, health, culture, art, education, education, etc., carried out without any financial remuneration or any honorarium. It also recognises exceptional projects that change things for the better through their mission.

The mission and purpose of the award is to express special gratitude to those who find a place in their spare time to help others and wherever there is simply a need.

Our project also advanced to the national round of awards, which took place at the Primate’s Palace in Bratislava. The national awards were organised by the Platform of Volunteer Centres and Organisations and took place under the auspices of the President of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Čaputová and the Mayor of Bratislava Matúš Vall. More about the nominated organisations, volunteers and projects can be found at this link. As part of the trip to the awards, our robot visited the Presidential Palace.

Funds was used

We used the grant for:

Purchase of robotic toys and programming aids.
Reimbursement of travel expenses for volunteers.
Funding summer camps for children with cancer and cardiac disease.

Collaboration

We have trained about 40 of our volunteers to work with robotic toys and 3D printing. Those in IT also walled off their micro:bit courses and ucimeshardverom.sk made it possible for us to take their courses. We have made further contacts with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and with OZ Robotika.SK.

A total of 40 robotics workshops were held during the camps. During the camps we also managed to cooperate with OZ Robotika.SK, who prepared a workshop with LEGO Education Spike Prime robotic kits and helped us with 3D printing.

In addition, we started visiting a kindergarten and a crisis centre in Považská Bystrica, where we did several “test workshops”, which we plan to repeat and expand further due to their great success.

The Future

During our workshops we tried to introduce children to robotics, computer science and the basics of programming in a playful way through purchased robotic toys. The children were fully and happily engaged in the workshops and were keen to continue developing in this area and acquiring further skills and knowledge. Based on the feedback from the questionnaires , almost all the children are interested in further robotics workshops, they would like to try other robotic toys, they rated our workshop as great/bomb and they enjoyed working with the toys very much. For 60% of the children our workshop was their first experience with robotics. It is this kind of feedback that is a strong motivation for us to continue organizing robotics workshops for children in the future. We want to expand our activities to other cities in Slovakia and reach an even larger number of children we involve.

In addition to hospitals, we also plan to conduct robotics workshops and education for children in crisis centers in cooperation with other volunteer organizations, as well as in kindergartens under professional pedagogical supervision.

Impact of the project

With our project we have introduced the world of informatics and robotics to hundreds of children in hospitals in four cities in Slovakia and to dozens of children from all over Slovakia (at camps). We tried to awaken their interest and gain the necessary knowledge, the opportunity to try working with the most modern robotic toys, to learn logical and analytical thinking, basic programming, internet safety and critical thinking.

Valentine’s Day Toy Giveaway

We regularly organise toy collections throughout the year, which we then distribute to children in hospitals. We always have an accompanying programme for them, because we want them to feel as comfortable as possible with us. In the Valentine’s Day giveaway, the children collected stamps for creative activities and participation in a game with robotic toys, which they then exchanged for the prepared toy packages.

3D printing

Using the Creality Ender 3 S1 3D printer, we printed hearts for the 20th anniversary cardio camp, for example. The children at the hospital were very pleased with the little robot we gave them as a souvenir of our robotics workshops. We are gradually trying other projects, if you have a good idea, feel free to email us at kdn@kdn.sk. At our lenko onco camp we had two 3D printers right away for sure (the second one was a Sunlu T3) and we tried printing different animals together with the kids, like white owls.