Hello everyone! It’s that time once again when we put away our grills and beach umbrellas, dump the sand out of our sneakers, and begin to gear up for the start of a new school year. As teachers begin to create the framework for what will be covered in the coming semesters, this is also a great time to begin incorporating fischertechnik products into your classroom activities.

But wait, I hear some of you saying…how can we use fischertechnik when we don’t even have a robotics program?

This is a very common misconception. Well, as those of you who are regular Studica blog readers already know, fischertechnik is MUCH more than just robotics.  In fact, fischertechnik makes special sets that address such non-robotic areas as:

Renewable Energies—focusing on the areas of wind, water and sun, learn how energy from each of these sources is created, used and stored with the help of the Oeco Tech and Hydro Cell sets.

Electronics—Learn about the fundamentals of circuits, circuit diagrams, and conductors, as well as the different types of electrical connections and where they are used with the E-Tech set.

Pneumatics—Students can build an actual air compressor and study the principles behind using compressed air devices to perform work with the Pneumatic II set.

Physics—Explore physical phenomena such as acceleration, inertia of mass, centrifugal force, the law of conservation of energy and the laws of motion with the aid of six different coaster-style models included in the new Dynamic set.

Simple Machinery—build replicas of the innovative creations of Leonard d da Vinci with the Da Vinci Machines set.(PS–Also fits in great with classes addressing art and history)

Fundamentals of Engineering, Gears and Structural Design—with the Mechanics + Statics set.

These are but a few examples, and you can of course find more by visiting the Studica website. And even if your field of interest is in fact robotics, keep in mind that the area that fischertechnik excels in, which the other major construction and robotic sets do NOT even begin to adequately address, is in the area of Industrial Robotics, such as you would find in commercial manufacturing and production facilities. While other manufacturers make sets that are great fun for after school “Battle-Bot” types of competitions, but little else (we won’t name names, but you know who they are), fischertechnik produces items that have actually been used by corporations such as Daimler-Chrysler, Porsche and BMW to build simulations of their production facilities as well as to use for vocational training purposes.

On top of this, fischertechnik is also ideal for developing many other skills and aptitudes that go across all subject areas…skills such as abstract thinking, developing hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, problem solving and team work. You can find out more about these areas, as well as an overview of the core educational products, the subjects they address, and the ITEA created “Standards for Technological Literacy” which each set helps to support by downloading our special white paper “fischertechnik in the Classroom” by clicking on the link below*:

https://www.studica.com/cmsFiles/4FT_Classroom.pdf

Once you select the fischertechnik items that complement the subject matter being covered in your classroom, the next step is to actually integrate the sets into your classroom activities. We will look at some of the ways you can do this in our next installment. Until then, happy building! Stay tuned for Part 2!

*NOTE:–the current version of the white paper does not yet include the two latest fischertechnik releases (the “Dynamic” and “ROBO TX Automation Robots” sets), but we plan to have a revised version available for download later this month.

Author: Lance Zurek