Blue Star, high performance IT cybersecurity services, engineering and software solutions, hosted a robot-themed event on April 28. The event, which intentionally coincided with Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, was designed to allow employees to share their passion for technology and also to encourage the kids to become active, rather than passive, users of technology.
More than half of Blue Star’s employees plus 16 children, ages 3 to 13, attended the event, where they enjoyed hands-on, robot-themed activities including:
- Watching an interactive Lego® Mindstorms® robotics demonstration given by an employee and his two elementary-aged children. Kids as young as 3 were invited to help program the robot to do things like draw with a marker or shoot at targets.
- Working together at computer stations with an elementary, child-friendly programming language called Scratch.
- Playing freely with the many Lego and Duplo® toys available.
- Participating in several other robot-themed coloring, math, and language activities.
Each child left with a smile and an age-appropriate Lego-themed gift bag. Adam T., age six, shared his experience: “I liked programming the Lego Robot, but I liked using ‘Scratch’ the best. I programmed the cat to turn a different color. I went home and used Scratch some more. I also liked the Lego gift.”
The Robotics Day was considered such a success that there are already plans in place to repeat the event next year.
