LPC- Laboratory for Playful Computation
At LPC- the Laboratory for Playful Computation, they believe and know that children are the future. Feeding the young minds of today makes the world a better place tomorrow, and that is the main idea behind this organization. They are committed to discovering and utilizing different creative ways to foster innovative, engaging, and groundbreaking approaches to learning. Let’s take a quick tour of this organization to see who they are, what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it.
LPC’s Mission
The Laboratory for Playful Computation is an organization unique in its values and mission, being that they're fully focused on making learning both enjoyable and effective. Several pillars of their philosophy need to be emphasized. Here's what they stand for:
- Learning has to be joyful, fun, and creative.
- Students need to learn out of curiosity, not out of necessity.
- Education needs to be focused on nurturing young minds and their amazing ideas.
LPC mostly focuses on science, technology, the humanities, and the social sciences since these are the four most important segments of our lives today. To achieve their main mission and the goals they’ve set, they are actively working on creating the specific education methods, experiences, and technologies that can help them do it.
Simply put, LPC is building a whole world of revolutionary education experiences that both teachers and students love. If I wanted to find someone to write my essay or help me with an academic goal, their students would be the first choice.
LPC’s Projects
LPC has developed several distinct projects that help young people reach their learning goals more easily, express their ideas, develop their own projects, and fully integrate them into their learning experience. These projects fully support the interdisciplinary approach to learning and the commitment of this organization to turn it from an idea into reality.
Below, we'll mention and explain some of their best-featured projects.
Blocky Talky
With programming being one of the most in-demand skills of the modern day, LPC has developed a project that supports the development of this skill from the earliest age. They’ve created a programming environment called “Blocky Talky” that can be used as early as 10 years of age.
It was designed specifically for new programmers and beginners who have little or no coding experience. The goal is to foster computational thinking and problem-solving in young people using the program. All it takes is for users to come up with an idea and describe it to the system using a set of rules.
This can transform the way students think, study, and perform academically. Students who once needed to buy research papers or get tutoring now become much more confident in their education.
LPC’s students have made a variety of different projects, such as automatic pet feeders and other interactive applications.
Luminous Science
Luminous Science is a project that is completely focused on the interdisciplinary approach to learning. This means it supports the integration of different disciplines instead of learning them separately as if they don't coexist in the real world.
Specifically, this project integrates art, biology, and computer science. They believe that by integrating these disciplines, they’re enhancing the subjects beyond what they would be individually.
The traditional Japanese technique of lantern-making is used to represent different scientific phenomena visually. These lanterns are later used as teaching aids and resources for teachers who can cater to the needs of visual learners.
They even collaborate with scientists from their community to make the workshops even more successful and the art even more useful for teaching and discussing scientific phenomena.
EPIC Imagineers Collaboration
Another project that sets itself apart from the rest is the collaboration with the EPIC Imaginerees program and which is focused on humanizing the educational experience by catering to specific potentially vulnerable groups of students in the community.
This pre-teacher service preparation project aims to:
- create learning opportunities for children from non-dominant communities
- enhance community engagement
- teach social justice
Their projects and after-school clubs deal with topics such as equal rights, everyday problems and how to solve them, investigating problems in the community, and more. They teach students specific skills. For instance, those who once needed to buy custom essay now learn how to write one on their own.
As a result, both teachers and students are developing the skills that make them more empathic, open-minded, actionable, and tolerant members of the community.
Weird Code Club
This final project that we'll cover in this overview is once again an example of how different disciplines can and should work together. In this case, it’s art and technology.
LPC recognized the need for many artists to incorporate interactive technologies in their performances. However, very few artists are able to create and carry out these additions on their own. That leaves the artist no choice but to outsource an engineer who can do the job for them.
However, the Weird Code Club is working on empowering artists to remain in full control over their creative expression by learning how to do their own interactive technologies. This project thus creates accessible and easy-to-use tools that can help the artists do it all on their own. That includes:
- design tools
- lighting
- audio processing tools
- visual performance software
The best part about this project is that it not only teaches the artists a new skill but allows them to strengthen the skills they’ve already had.
LPC Blog
Finally, LPC has created a blog that is designed for young, curious minds who want to learn more about the world around them. The topics are colorful, and there’s something for everyone. Each of the topics offered on the blog is covered in an informative, data-based way that also fosters learning through leisure reading.
Students who regularly read the blog also learn about writing and even get inspired to write themselves. At first, you can pay for essay if you’re not skilled enough, but the more you read, the better your writing will be.
This way, young people can use their Blog as an additional resource for their own research and to learn about the different projects, events, and workshops LPC’s organizing.
LPC: The Future of Education is Bright
After reading the overview of the Laboratory for Playful Computation, we hope you'll agree that this organization is working on making the future a little bit brighter for all of us. With young minds that are flourishing and ideas that are being nurtured and brought to life, we are all benefiting.
LPC is a brand to pay close attention to and wait to see the results of their amazing work.