We think building life skills is as equally important as building technical skills as these skills will compound over time and greatly help students adapt to the ever changing world. We believe in providing access to students from all walks of lives. Our team brings enjoyment, engagement, empathy, excellence, and empowerment to our partners and the students we serve.
The idea struck - what if we start a summer camp with an emphasis on creativity, hands-on learning, and problem solving? We started with 4 weeks of STEM summer camps for 200 students in Beijing.
1st Robotics Kid Club Launches at our house to have our kids and their friends build robots together.
When we reflected on the first summer camps, we realized that we were missing a key component - an emotionally connected safe community. In this second year of summer camps, we expanded to four cities with15 teachers teaching 400 students and we added Social Emotional Learning (SEL) modules to our programs.
In order to grow our impact and increase reach, we created a public benefit company called Kids2GLOW. The GLOW stands for Growth mindset, Lifelong learning, Open, and Worldwide. This allowed us to expand into schools and build a team to build curricula and teach.
Partnered with RoboRobo, a company with more than 15 years in developing education robotics products and curricula. RoboRobo was looking to expand to the U.S. and chose us because of our educational programs.
We opened Build a Robot Learning Center in Superior, CO. We opened the center to develop a community for consistent computer science literacy education for all students and a pathway for accelerated students to excel. We decided to name the learning center Build a Robot to quickly convey the message of building together.
We had a beautiful year serving students within the 30 mile radius of our learning center in Superior. We worked with elementary and middle school students on a wide variety of platforms and curricula such as Ozobot, Dash and Dot, RoboRobo, Makeblock, Cozmo, LEGO EV3, micro:bit, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Misty, and Toys2Life. It was FUN!
Like everybody else, we had to close our physical space on March 20th. We moved all our classes to live online teaching. While we missed seeing our students in-person, we expanded our reach to students in Oregon, California, and South Dakota through partnerships with other providers. We also reached students to other states in the U.S. and internationally through our offerings at outschool. We were committed to the community and each other. We not only retained all our employees but also successfully applied for a H1 working visa for a colleague.
As our building lease completes its 3-yr contract, we closed the physical space in Superior. It wasn't a difficult decision. As much as we love our colorful spacious studio, we believe our impact could only increase with more focus on working with like-minded partners. We switched from serving both B2B and B2C customers to serving mostly other organizations that align with our mission and practice- serve students from every quarter and incorporate social emotional learning with STEM skill building. Student Milestones: Our first learning center volunteer and student employee was admitted to MIT majoring in computer science. Our first learning center middle school student won a seat at the Broadcom Masters Top 300.
We established partnerships with multiple partners that serve the underrepresented communities. Some of our students live in rural areas, some are ESL (English as a Second Language) learners, some are refugees, some are one grade level below their normal classes, and some are young men of color. When they join our sessions, they shine! Their energy and curiosities are contagious and they have brightened up our world. Student Milestones: Our first home school student was admitted to the Colorado School of Mines at the young age of 14. Our first program volunteer was admitted to University of Colorado at Boulder, majoring in EE.
Through our work with a wide range of students, we developed the 5E framework and are now sharing this with all our partners. We are developing specs for a platform to make personalized teaching and learning more accessible.
We are a group of educators, engineers, entrepreneurs, and parents who are passionate about our mission: creating and advocating for innovative human-centered education to inspire and develop empathetic problem solvers and leaders.
Build a Robot K12 works with schools, afterschool programs, libraries, hardware and curriculum providers, and other organizations to provide computer science education in robotics, coding, and design with an emphasis on social emotional learning. We often collaborate with our partners on events, workshops, and projects that engage and support student learning. Our common goal is always to provide opportunities for students to build 21st century skills like problem solving, creativity, & growth mindset and to become leaders with empathy.
We want to empower all kids to imagine, build and create solutions for a diverse, inclusive, thriving society.
Here are our Core Beliefs that Guide Our Culture
Community
That means we show up for each other, act with empathy, and bring our authentic selves to work every day. We’re growing this company for our community, each other and our mission.
Innovation
That means we don’t do something a certain way because “this is how we’ve always done it.” We are open-minded. We innovate, iterate, make mistakes, improve, repeat.
Integration
We’re whole people. That means we build a culture that supports our team members’ growth professionally and personally.
Fun
Our time on earth is finite. It is a privilege to be spending time together. While we can’t avoid struggles, we always remind ourselves that it is important to have fun along the way.
Agile
We move quickly and deliberately in pursuit of achieving sustainable, global growth and reach.
Success
We believe that achieving financial growth and making positive social impact are equally important. Without both we cannot expand our impact and build our vision for the world.
Impactful
We improve people’s lives. That means our goal is to have a positive impact on the lives of all we work with: our students, our employees, our stakeholders and our community.
Trust
We operate from a place of transparency and offer honest feedback, even when it is uncomfortable to do so. We do this because we trust one another’s intentions and want everyone to continuously learn and grow.
© 2023 – Build a Robot K12
