FAQ

No, ORA will have sessions ranging from beginners to advanced. Anyone with an interest in learning more about robotics engineering is welcome.

Please see the course descriptions on the 'Courses' page for course fees.

Registration fee includes tax, access to robotics equipment, computers, facility costs and liability insurance.

There are discounts for families registering siblings.  

Depending on the course, tournament preparation, etc., class sessions generally range between 75-90 minutes. 

If, after the first class, your son/daughter decide it is not for them, there is NO fee. After that, tuition, less a $150 non-refundable deposit, is refundable until the end of the third week. 

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Based on years of teaching robotics, we are pretty confident your son/daughter will want to continue 🙂.

You will have full access to robot equipment and materials, including computers. Academy students receive an ORA t-shirt and some cool Okanagan Robotics Academy bling. 

After completing Robotics CORE or an equivalent course, depending on age students have the opportunity to compete in SumoBot, Soccer, Search & Rescue, Joust, etc. There are individual and team competitions options available. For example, SumoBot can be both individual or teams of up to three, Robotic Soccer is normally teams of 2-3, Search & Rescue 1-2, etc. 

We will also have non-competitive projects such as Lightsaber construction and programming, animatronics, and individual skill based challenges. 

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For parents desiring their child to be on a team and a community of friends, this is the place for your child.   

Introductory and advanced courses include Lego Robotics using NXT and EV3 platforms, BBC Microbit, and Arduino.  As students advance in their understanding, they will migrate more heavily to Arduino and the C++ programming language. 

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At ORA, we focus on supportive community, team building, teamwork and collaboration. There will be times when you will work individually, and there will be times when you will share and collaborate with other students. 

Many of our courses fulfill the Ministry of Education's Core Competencies and Content for ADST (Applied Digital Skills and Technology). High Schools can create partial or full course credits (Course Credit toward graduation is relevant for Grade 10-12) for ORA courses taken. In Grade 3-9 ADST is a required course. Contact us for more information. 

ORA is much more than learning to build different creations and program them.

It is about building community, making friends, and fun, rich learning in a highly innovative environment. 

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Through years of teaching in this field, we have designed a program that introduces relevant concepts through engaging and

thoughtful course design. We build challenges around these concepts that are goal oriented. 

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For example, students learn about inequalities in Math at school (>, <, =). But why? What use are they?

In Robotics CORE, students learn very quickly why as they are introduced to different sensors such as the Ultrasonic Sensor (the eyes of a robot). Learning to set distance parameters with the robot 'seeing' up to 100cm away requires using inequalities

(< 100cm) when programming. The same can be said of English spelling and grammar when older students learn C++. We help students see the connections to their learning at school. 

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During the learning phase, every student works on their own robotic/ electronics kit, along with a provided computer for coding and 3D design work. Students will still collaborate with one another, sharing design and coding strategies. As students choose to move into competitive events, then teaming and working on a common design/program converges. This model provides a much more satisfying learning experience.

In contrast, due to limited resources, most schools and camps only option is to have students always work in groups. Although this is not inherently a bad thing, it can occasionally lead to an imbalance in the participation and learning in each group. 

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Moreover, with limited class sizes, students at ORA have more one on one access to experienced instructors, maximizing a positive learning experience for each student. ​​

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There is limited enrolment although to date we have managed to include everyone who has enrolled. 

We will be maintaining class sizes at a maximum of  10 students. Students outside of the enrolment cap will be placed on a waitlist, or can pre-register for the next session.