Source: Smilegate

Smilegate Future Lab (Chair Kwon Hyuk-bin) announced on the 4th that it has partnered with the Gyeonggi Seongnam Office of Education to launch a digital maker education program titled 'Future Lab with Smilegate.'

This initiative is designed to provide high-quality digital maker education to youth in the Seongnam area by organically connecting the creative infrastructure of a corporation with the regional educational resources of the local education office.

Future Lab will provide educational content from its digital creative education project, 'Future B Challenge,' while the Seongnam Office of Education will leverage public-private partnerships with local professional firms to offer students diverse learning experiences and career exploration opportunities. This public-private collaboration model aims to enhance the creative capabilities of local youth by combining the strengths of both institutions.

The program is divided into two tracks: 'Future B Makerthon' and 'Future B Challenge.'

The 'Future B Makerthon' will be held over two days starting on the 6th for students in grades 8 through 10. Participants will identify everyday problems based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and use 'micro:bit' kits to build prototypes for solutions. The curriculum begins with activities linked to UN SDG cases, followed by basic hardware learning, sensor data control, design thinking workshops, immersive coding, and prototype production, concluding with team presentations and peer feedback.

The 'Future B Challenge' is aimed at students in grades 5 and 6 and will run for five weeks, every Wednesday from September 19th to September 16th. Students will explore and document everyday problems and use 'OctoStudio,' a mobile coding app developed by the MIT Media Lab, to turn their own ideas into physical prototypes.

Oh Sook-hyun, Director of Smilegate Future Lab, stated, "By combining the creative education expertise of a corporation with the network of a regional education office, we are enabling youth in Seongnam to experience creative problem-solving. Future Lab will continue to expand this collaborative model for future education that grows alongside the local community."