Brilliant Labs / Labos Créatifs
Brilliant Labs / Labos Créatifs work directly with schools and have helped establish 150 maker spaces throughout Atlantic Canada.
Training with Brilliant Labs
Their mission is “to provide every child in Atlantic Canada with the opportunity to have access to new technologies and programming to create, innovate and inspire a future that offers sustainable growth in community and social/environmental entrepreneurialism.”
Programme design and content
The goal of the bilingual team (35 staff and 17 teachers) is to encourage young people to engage with innovative projects and endeavour to challenge them. They offer multifaceted opportunities to experiment, create, and analyse, doing through “integrating code in everything from arts and crafts to robots and rockets.”
Brilliant Labs offer learning tools, code camps and competitions, with micro:bit used as a central tool in their activities.
The programme also has an intergenerational focus where students and seniors can work together as part of a mentoring scheme.
Resources and training
Brilliant Labs offer courses, innovation challenges and Maker activities across four regions of Atlantic Canada: Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
Makerspace adoption in schools and communities is supported through a “Maker Carts” scheme: these offer mobile micro-Makerspaces used to help accelerate maker education adoption in several rural communities in Atlantic Canada.
To support learning at home and online, Brilliant Labs also run a PixelPad tutorial site which focuses on Python lessons along with a Youtube channel offering video tips, tools and instructions.