Pakistan is an up-and-coming nation when it comes to education. The country still maintains a very high illiteracy rate, but those numbers are tarnished by the older generations. School-aged children have a literacy rate almost twice that of their parents and grandparents.
“LearnOBots was founded to inspire Pakistani kids towards STEAM education,” explained LearnOBots’ co-founder Shamyl Bin Mansoor to 3DPrint.com. “We use open source software and open source hardware to create products that we use to teach kids about STEAM. In Pakistan buying toys, tools and electronics that are usually imported is very difficult for most people as it is usually expensive due to additional import costs and tax. Our goal is to make technology and tools accessible locally so that we can inspire kids through Maker Education. 3D printing is helping us build these tools locally instead of mass manufacturing or importing from China.”
3D printing is huge for LearnOBots, and is increasingly so for Pakistan as a country. LearnOBots has teamed with schools to offer interesting workshops for educating children using 3D printing technology. While LearnOBots offers five different workshops for schools, including construction of LEGO Mindstorm Robot kits, the assembly of electronic snapcircuits, and the creation of solar houses, 3D printing also plays a major role. Two workshops in particular are based around 3D printing, one being a workshop on creating 3D printed mobile robots.
“We also teach kids 3D modeling, using TinkerCad from AutoDesk,” Mansoor told us. “There are a number of useful tutorials that help the kids in quickly grasping concepts like creating basic shapes, moving around in the 3D environment, handling the camera, etc. The kids then design their own model which they 3D print on the printer. Our goal is to promote a local maker community that not only uses 3D printing, but [also] learns to make stuff, and as a result learns all about STEAM.”
The latest project was the aforementioned 3D printed mobile robots which are constructed to work their way around obstacles. After building and programming their robots, students race them to see whose can get to the finish line first. See video below:
What do you think? Should more schools around the world be utilizing 3D printing technology like LearnOBots is doing in Pakistan? Discuss in the 3D Printed Mobile Obstacle Avoidance Robot forum thread on 3DPB.com.