African children are not excluded from the use of the latest technologies. Schools are integrating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) into their curriculum with practicals for applying scientific methods into everyday life. Thus, introducing children to the latest technologies and preparing them for future jobs.
Although some are clueless about what to be, others inquisitively try their hands on several things until they find their career path. Many children end up following the bandwagon and later discover that it was a waste of time. A few like Oluwatobilola Nsikakabasi Owolola and Fathia Abdullahi dare to be different.
Two Nigerians – Fathia and Oluwatobilola, independently built robots to take care of house chores. BBC Africa’s video interview featured the two children talking about their inventions.
Oluwatobilola built a “robot grabber”—for moving things around the house. The tool is for arranging scattered items by identifying objects, grabbing, and repositioning them.
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12-year old geniuses – hats off to Fathia and Oluwatobiloba! https://t.co/SFzlQJap2B
— GistNigeriaTV (@gistnigeriatv) May 13, 2019
Oluwatobilola was driven by a strong liking for Lego robotics ever since he was a toddler. He eventually took up coding last year. It was while learning that he designed the “robot grabber.”
Fathia, on the other hand, had her first robotics exposure last year. She had worked on several small projects before successfully coming up with a robot that folds clothes. Her robot is capable of neatly folding laundered garments in her home.
These two are examples of young Africans that are embracing coding and robotics. Schools are not the only one making efforts, companies also create learning spaces for kids. CcHub and Enyo recently launched ‘STEMCafé’, a creative play space for kids and teenagers between the ages of 5 – 18 in Lagos, Nigeria. There are also coding Boot camps in Uganda and Ghana which introduce coding to students at a very young age.
What did you do at 12?