Magikid Makes Robotics Training Fun

Do you want to travel into the past and make a dinosaur dance, model a future cityscape, or imagine how to blast off into space with a rocket?

Have you ever considered how to make the world safer from dangers posed by volcanoes, earthquakes, and fires?

Explore those questions and others during STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) camps at Magikid Highland Park on Sherry Lane this summer.

Weeklong STEM camps for kindergartners through sixth graders begin on May 27 and will allow students to sample Magikid’s activities. The center’s offerings include building robots, programming, experimenting with 3D design, and creating imaginative videos in front of Magikid’s green screen.

Owner Jacqui Moore said STEM Camp students are divided into groups based on age, with at most six students in each group.

Younger students construct robots with Lego-like Ollo blocks. The creations of kindergartners and first graders could include teeth-brushing robots, walking dogs, or dancing dinosaurs. Second and third graders construct more complex robots, such as a pirate robot capable of moving in different ways.

Older students can choose from the tools, parts, electronics, and sensors in Magikid’s “Home Depot” of robotics for their builds, Moore said.

In basic classes, teachers might show students how to assemble creations such as robotic arms, while more advanced students could tackle the designs themselves.

Students will work in teams, critique each other’s projects, and discuss how to improve their ideas the next time.

“There’s no perfect way of building a robot. You can always improve,” Moore said.

Magikid isn’t just for younger kids. Students entering fourth through ninth grade can spend summer evenings training to join Magikid’s VEX IQ competition team in the 2024-25 school year.

Magikid Highland Park will participate for the first time in next year’s competition, which attracts thousands of teams from around the world, Moore said.

The lab’s coach has a long history of teaching robotics and has taken teams to the world championships five times.

“We’re super-excited to have her to lead a competition team,” Moore said.

Magikid Highland Park is new to the Park Cities and Magikid’s second location in Texas. The lab opened on Sherry Lane in August 2023, and was inspired by Moore’s children, both students at University Park Elementary.

They were “guinea pigs” for early classes and now come to Magikid regularly. Moore’s older child is more focused on programming and 3D design, while her younger one is more interested in building, motors, and sensors.

Moore said she’s particularly proud that children with no robotics experience have been excited to come back and learn more and that Magikid has helped girls become excited about STEM.

Although some children may come at the behest of a parent or sibling, “they end up staying, and we treasure those moments,” Moore said, “and we want to continue to help them keep their interest and passion in STEM.”