The idea comes from our collaborating high-tech companies and supporting the municipality of Smallingerland and the province of Fryslân with money. Together we hope that the children will become enthusiastic and will soon opt for a technical education.

,,Who has a robot at home?'' alderman Roel Haverkort (Smallingerland) asks the children, as they stand around the EDU robot. Fingers shoot into the air. "We have a lawn mowing robot." "And I have a toy robot, but it is smaller than this one and can't do much." Haverkort tells the children how important technology is, for example, in making clean energy and making it increasingly smarter. of computers and the use of robots in industry and healthcare. “And if there are more and more robots, there must also be enough people who can program these robots and work with them. That is why I hope that you will enjoy technology so much that you will soon opt for a technical profession.”

packing machine

When it comes to technology, children today are well catered for. They are allowed to work with a large industrial robot, a fully automatic packing machine from high-tech company Neopost in Drachten. “Our packaging machine, the CVP-500, can pack 500 packages per hour. It doesn't matter whether they are big or small, each package gets its own packaging that fits exactly'', explains Piet Fellinger of Nepost. After a short explanation, the children line up, ready to place the boxes with the robots on the belt and press the button. At the end of the belt, they take the packed robot off, stick a special shipping sticker on it and place the box on a pallet. Ready for shipment.

Robot in class

Assembling the robot may be a fun activity at school, but the question is, of course, how the robot can help the children in class. "That is why we are working on a follow-up to the teaching package that comes with the robot," says project leader Bas de Nooijer of Innovatiecluster Drachten. ,,It is of course great if you can learn foreign languages with the help of this robot. Or doing homework together. It's all possible. Schools will soon be able to choose how they will use the robot in their teaching programme''.

Primary schools in the municipalities of Smallingerland, Opsterland and Oost- en Weststellingwerf can expect the robot from Thursday 7 September. The rest of the primary schools will be equipped with their robot later this month.

EDU Robotics

415 primary schools in Fryslân will receive a robot that children can assemble themselves and which can be controlled and programmed by means of an Arduino 'heart' processor. Each school receives a teaching package. A support program for the lessons is currently being worked on with vocational education in Fryslân. In addition, a working group has been set up to give the EDU robot a permanent place in the 'Computational Thinking' learning track. In two shifts in 2017, the robots will be distributed among all Frisian primary schools until all schools have their own EDU robot. At the beginning of 2018, a large festive event will be organized to bring all schools together with their EDU robot. Here the children can show what they have taught their own robot. Look EDU Robotics For more information.