Why NAO?
As an integral part of the National and State agenda, coding and robotics are quickly becoming mandatory within the Australian Digital Technologies Curriculum. Teaching technologies with NAO not only prepares students for future employment in the digital age but also provides an appreciation of how robotics can help in the community today.
NAO is a unique platform both in functionality and design that inspires learners of all ages and abilities; from competent coders to those who have previously shown little or no interest in STE(A)M related areas.
How Coding and Robotics fit into STE(A)M:
NAO is the perfect platform to create differentiated classes that combine hard-skills in technology with equally important soft-skills learned in the humanities. In fact, a recent report by Deloitte Access Economics emphasises the importance of soft-skills in the workplace, predicting that soft-skills will account for two thirds of jobs by 2030. Example lessons could include:
Mathematics – Use NAO to program coordinates or to walk along an X and Y axis to finish at a certain angle, or use NAO’s 25 degrees of freedom to animate the robot by placing its body parts at different angles. Nao can also process complex data and equations.
Drama – Combine Drama, English Classics, and ICT to program NAO robots to perform Shakespeare’s plays as a school in the UK has done.
LOTE – Several Australian schools have used NAO in interactive language classes where students program conversations in LOTE, including an indigenous language. NAO currently speaks 19 different languages.
