Montreal elementary school kids learn coding, robotics – and have fun doing it

Learning robotics is a great way for children to develop important skills like coding, electronics, and engineering.

But it can also be a lot of fun, according to elementary students at Montreal’s John Caboto Academy who showcased their “creations” during the school’s robotics fair on Wednesday.

“You get to do fun things and there’s a lot of challenges along the way but we always find a way to just fix it,” said Liev Alexander Ellison.

“Robotics is electronic Lego,” said 11-year-old Gianluca Cannistraro.

The students are not even teenagers yet, but it’s clear they have a greater understanding of what makes coding and robotics so special.

“Building the stuff, connecting and programming it to make it a success,” said Anthony Iannetta.

“How you are using your creativity to build the stuff and code it,” added Stefano Scavone, 10, when asked about his favourite element of robotics.

If the students are learning a lot and having fun while doing it, a lot of credit goes to Grade 4 teacher Alex Rosauri, who is also the robotics supervisor.

“I showed them little basic coding skills,” Rosauri said. “I showed them how to use fun things like Lego and put something together and just simply in the end create something like a robot car or they can make grabbers, they can have safes. So it’s all just a teaching of the fundamentals of coding and how to properly follow instruction because that’s important.

“If you can believe a child can do it, they’ll be able to do it.”

The leadership at John Caboto Academy is behind the program 100 per cent of the way.

“It’s very important to expose the children to many, many things, and this is why we have a strong robotics program, a strong science and STEM program,” said principal Sonia Marotta.

Extracurricular activities are crucial for a child’s holistic development, says Marotta, who is proud to lead a school that has been nominated for best elementary school in Montreal for the second consecutive year

“I am very fortunate to be in a school of this nature because as a leader you also have to have the team that kind of sees your vision as well, and together we build what we have,” Marotta said. “We also have a very strong community, a wonderful group of parents that are super involved in our everyday, making our students exposed to a lot of extracurricular activities.”

That strong community feeling and reliance on teamwork is felt strongly back in the robotics class, where children learn what it means to work together.

“We worked as a team and I like working as a team cause it’s like fun,” said Mattéo Monastier, showing off his Alfa Romeo inspired design.

“A few times we did argue because mostly on this part there were a few parts that were messing us up and then we started saying oh no we have to do this, we have to do this, we have to do that, but then eventually we stopped, we rewinded and we found what we actually had to do,” added Thomas Kastantras.