Already our world is becoming more and more automated. Researchers are now saying that emotional intelligence and empathy are going to be the most sought after skills in our future.
These skills are at the root of Design Thinking, as we need to understand the end user before we can create a solution for them, whether this is a new app, or designing a system to generate power in a hostile environment.
Sometimes we need to connect with people that are not local, so we use digital tools such as Zoom to facilitate this.

Part of the Design Thinking process is to build prototypes of the products we intend to create. We can do this with digital tools which allows us to change and better our prototypes very rapidly without wasting valuable materials. We can also then print these models to create final versions of our product.

Computational Thinking (CT) is a problem solving process that includes a number of characteristics and dispositions. CT is essential to the development of computer applications, but it can also be used to support problem solving across all disciplines, including the arts, math, and science. Students who learn CT across the curriculum can begin to see a relationship between subjects, as well as between life inside and outside of the classroom.
Hence it is a critical tool in our STEAM toolbox.
Robotics is a great way to introduce Computational Thinking to your students and also scaffold them towards more complex projects.