Unleashing Creativity: MODI Robotics Adventure at PLK Yu Chun Primary School
Earlier this year, our INSPIRE® team visited PLK Yu Chun Primary School in Ma On Shan, bringing an exciting MODI robotics workshop to a group of curious primary school students. Over four hands-on sessions, students built their own robots using MODI modules, learned basic coding, and even conducted mini science experiments. From tentative exploration to proudly showcasing their creations, they fully demonstrated their potential in technology learning.
The Magic of MODI: Simple Yet Fun
MODI is a modular robotics kit from Korean company LUXROBO. Children can easily snap modules together to create moving robots without dealing with complex circuit boards. Its graphical coding interface works on computers, tablets, and phones, and it's even compatible with LEGO bricks — turning imagination into reality instantly. This toolkit suits all ages and is especially effective at sparking primary students' creativity.
Our curriculum was designed like a game: quick assembly, test the results, identify problems, then improve the design. This "plug-and-play" process was not only fun but taught students to think like engineers and even inspired scientific investigations, such as measuring changes in classroom lighting.
A Creative Journey in Four Sessions
Session 1: Meet MODI, Start Exploring
In the first session, we introduced MODI's input modules (buttons, environment sensors), output modules (LEDs, speakers), and setup modules (battery, network). Students immediately got hands-on, building flash lights (button-activated LEDs), sound controllers (dial-controlled speaker volume), and even a colour-changing "rainbow wand" using the gyroscope. They observed and experimented — for instance, how the environment sensor "hears" classroom sounds — practising real scientific inquiry.
Session 2: Logical Thinking, Building Life Helpers
Next came the coding world, where students learned "If-Then" and "If-Else" conditional statements and drew flowcharts to organise their ideas. They built traffic lights (button-switched red-green-yellow with countdown) and front-door sensors (distance sensors detecting approach and displaying a smiley face). After each test, they checked results — such as sensor sensitivity — and refined their code, learning the art of iterative improvement.
Session 3: Loop Magic, Creating Smart Machines
The third session focused on "Repeat", "While", and "Until" loops, enabling MODI robots to run continuously. Students built earthquake sensors (gyroscope-triggered alarms) and car reversing sensors (distance sensors with motors simulating driving). They refined their designs, such as adding speed controllers for smoother movement, testing and improving until satisfied.
Session 4: Creative Explosion, Showcasing Unique Projects
The final session was where students combined all their knowledge and let their imagination run wild. They brainstormed themes like space exploration, sketched designs, selected modules, wrote code, and brought ideas to life. One group built a goalkeeper robot car using motors for random movement and tested different speeds. Each group shared their work and discussed challenges — like how to tune motors to mimic a real goalkeeper — in a lively and engaging atmosphere.
Takeaways and Inspiration
This workshop let children experience the joy of "assemble — test — observe — improve" while conducting various scientific investigations with MODI, such as measuring temperature levels or simulating earthquake detection. Watching them grow from shy beginners to confident presenters was truly moving — these kids were like little engineers! The programme taught more than coding; it cultivated problem-solving and teamwork skills.
Future Plans
This MODI workshop at PLK Yu Chun Primary School showed us the limitless potential of STEM education. In the future, we hope to use MODI in more scientific exploration projects, such as environmental monitoring or simple AI experiments. If your school would like to try a similar programme, please contact our INSPIRE® education team! We can design bespoke courses tailored to your students' needs — let's ignite the spark of creativity together.