InkSmith Releases Spanish Curriculum for k8 Robot and Climate Action Kit

InkSmith is excited to officially release the Spanish Robotics curriculum for the k8 Robot and Climate Action Kit. At InkSmith, the mission has always been to make coding and digital skills accessible to kids globally. One way InkSmith has been working towards this goal is by partnering with educators internationally to translate and adapt curriculum in order to improve learning for their students. Recently, InkSmith partnered with Francophone educators to translate the k8 Robot and Climate Action Kit curriculum for French-speaking students and teachers.  

For InkSmith, the next step to making coding and robotics accessories more accessible globally was to translate and adapt the curriculum for other languages. To do this, InkSmith has partnered with Selvin Rivas, an educator and edtech advocate from El Salvador. As a Microsoft Certified Learning Consultant, Selvin has been a driving force for increasing access to technology and digital skills for students and educators in Latin America. 

“Selvin Rivas, our Director of New Markets in Latin America and the Carribean, has worked very hard to not only translate the curriculum, but also to redesign it with local contexts in mind.” says InkSmith CEO and Founder, Jeremy Hedges. “Selvin has been an invaluable partner for school districts and education companies as he has a deep understanding of how this technology can improve learning,” Jeremy added. 

In recent years, the demand for coding literacy among young people has grown exponentially, with some equating the skill to the modern-day version of cursive writing. In order to prepare students for the digital world and workforce of the future, it’s important to equip them with the necessary skills to be successful after they finish school. One way many schools around the world are going this is by introducing students to coding using products such as the BBC micro:bit. 

The BBC micro:bit is a small micro-computer that can be programmed to perform a variety of actions using any of its built-in features. These features include 25 LED lights, 2 buttons, an accelerometer, compass, Bluetooth connection, and an edge connector for expansion with other accessories. 

Two of these accessories that are compatible with the micro:bit are the k8 Robot and Climate Action Kit. Both of these expansion accessories use the micro:bit to act as the brain of the robotic project. The k8 Modular Robotics Kit is a programmable robot capable of line following, sonar sensing, remote control and more. The k8 Robot is the perfect tool for introducing students to coding as it allows them to interact and iterate on their code in real life. 

Similarly, the Climate Action Kit is a robotic inventors kit that focuses on teaching kids coding and Computational Thinking concepts but centers around climate change issues. The Climate Action Kit comes with all the robotic parts needed to build 5 different micro:bit projects. The goal of the Kit is to empower students to combat the climate change issues they’re facing while also learning value digital skills for the future.

Both the k8 Robot and Climate Action Kit come packaged with comprehensive online curriculum for educators in the classroom. This curriculum is not only designed to teach students the basics of coding with the robotic tool but also how educators can expand on learning with these tools. 

InkSmith understands that in order to make a meaningful impact with the Climate Action Kits, it is important to get them into the hands of as many students as possible. Introducing these Climate Action Kits into Latin America is just one small step towards empowering our youth to make a difference for their future. 

“Every person in the world should be concerned about Climate Change and work to solve it” explains Selvin. “Thanks to the arrival of the Climate Action Spanish curriculum, thousands of schools and organizations in Latin America will be able to create innovative solutions and projects to assure that coming generations will inherit a better world” he stated. 

Jeremy echoed Selvin’s statement, adding; “Just as mobile banking in Africa leapfrogged our progress in the West, I see a future where Latin American educators are able to rapidly adapt educational technology for making digital skills accessible to their students.” 

InkSmith is excited to make the k8 Robot and Climate Action Kit curriculum resources available in Spanish to support Latin American educators. Over the next year, InkSmith will be releasing several additional Climate Action Kits and will remain committed to making them available to Spanish learners. 

For more information about the k8 Robot of Climate Action Kit, please visit our website or contact us at sales@inksmith.ca. If you would like to preview the online curriculum that is included with each of the products, please visit our curriculum platform.