Festo_Bionics4Education_en

Bionics fills people of all ages with enthusiasm, it arouses cu- riosity and interest – and it facilitates learning. Festo, a learning enterprise and automation specialist, unites the field of bionics with education by means of a new, motivating didactical concept: Bionics4Education is oriented towards young people aged 14 to 18 and sets out to make creative worlds of technology readily accessible to them. Thanks to this innovative modular system and the accompanying digital learning environment, theory rapidly becomes practice for young people: at school or at home, they learn to experiment with simple work materials, to think in a problem-oriented way and to work together as a team. These bionic methods enable the young- sters to set about performing their tasks effortlessly and in an un- complicated way. The didactical and learning strategies of the educational kit are based on the multifaceted learning effects provided by the Bionic Learning Network team. During the development phases of count- less bionics projects, the experts have gained valuable experience over the course of many years, which can now be passed on in a targeted way through Bionics4Education. An integral education concept Bionics4Education unites analogue and digital learning in didac- tical form: it is both a practically oriented educational kit and an accompanying digital learning environment. The teaching material is designed for use in either school education or in vocational training. The modular system was developed by an interdisciplinary team of engineers, designers, computer scientists and biologists from the Bionic Learning Network – in cooperation with Festo Didactic, the world-leading service provider in the field of technical education. Students from external universities were also involved in this project. An innovative educational kit The learning kit contains the materials and components required for three different bionics projects: the Bionic Fish; the Bionic Chameleon Gripper; and the Bionic Elephant’s Trunk, an adaptive gripper with Fin Ray Effect ® . The basic equipment comprises servo motors, electronic components, and functional and connecting elements, so that the students can start building straight away. Their task is to combine the supplied components with materials and objects they select themselves, in an appropriate and creative way. Suitable elements are for example cable fasteners, small sandbags, cardboard and foam material. The young people learn to create highly individual, reusable model variants and to control them via an interface such as PC or smartphone. Bionics4Education Educational kit with an innovative learning environment