Technology is a pillar of modern life and a good command of electronics is required to develop technology. When directing children’s creative thinking to solve problems with technology and providing them with the tools needed, they produce great innovations. Teaching children electronics doesn’t only provide them with a better understanding of circuits and computers, but also helps them improve their problem-solving skills and prepares them to be active in a world where technology is everywhere.
We’ve been conducting workshops and teaching Arduino and electronics to children in Syria since 2012 and during that time we’ve been constantly looking for ways to make the experience more friendly and entertaining. Building on the success of these workshops with kids, the impact on them and the applause of their parents, we started developing our own educational toolkit, Daraty!
Daraty, which means ‘my circuit’ in Arabic, is a hardware toolkit that is simple-yet-effective educational tool for children ages 7 and up. The fun-packed kit comes with a mobile application that uses friendly content with animated tutorials to help users understand and learn. The app tracks circuit building progress, detects circuit errors and explains how to fix them. Our kit is designed to be child-friendly and extensible. It’s upgradable to support new circuit elements and new languages, with our current focus being on Arabic.
We first pitched Daraty at Startup Weekend Damascus competition in February 2014, and we were among the first three winners! After we worked further on the business plan of the idea Daraty was awarded an incubation by the ICT Incubator in April 2014.
