FAQ

– The Lab is the first coding school in Singapore, if not in Asia, to formalize a Computational Thinking and Programming curriculum for students aged 5 and above. At The Lab, the student not only learns to be proficient in Python, but also builds skills in computational thinking, logic and problem solving, analytical skills, and information processing. Students who learn how to think computationally increase their logical, creative thinking and problem solving skills. These skills facilitate and increase a student’s analytical power to better solve traditional school subjects such as Science and Math.

– We have a Proven Curriculum with clear learning objectives and formalized assessment. Our curriculum has been developed with guidance from the senior team of The Lab. Most coding programs are not curriculum based and do not have clear learning objectives against which to assess student progress.

– Our curriculum is An Experiential one. The Lab’s experiential curriculum removes students from traditional classroom setting and allows them to immerse themselves into real-world problems. It is a powerful approach to teaching coding and Computational Thinking, hence enhancing theunderstanding of math and science. Core computational thinking concepts such as decomposition, pattern recognition, and abstraction are introduced as will programming tools such as flowcharts.

Each student is stringently assessed by a cutting -edge technology system powered by data analytics, supported with highly qualified facilitators. We closely monitor the progress of the student throughout his/her learning journey with us as the system assessed the student consistently to ensure that the student is learning in the most efficient way.

Scratch is a development environment designed especially for programmers aged 8 to 16 (but it’s fun and useful for beginners of all ages). It’s an all-inclusive environment that contains any block you need to manipulate a cast of characters through an environment of your creation. More experienced scratcher’s can branch out and create games and animations all their own using Scratch’s extensive library of blocks.

Blockly, on the other hand, allow users to code real-world tools. Blockly blocks can be translated directly into such languages as Javascript, PHP, Dart, and Python.

In The Lab, we use Blockly to expose your child to Python as early as possible. Based on our experience, there is a low retention rate when a child switches from Scratch to native programming languages because the child is too dependent on visual programming. Whilst Blockly uses visual programming too, the interface shows native programming as well and hence allows a child to progress to syntax programming more effectively than from Scratch to Python.

Python stands out for many reasons: it’s a high level open source programming language that has a very large and growing supportive community. It’s a flexible language that is used by Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, and for data analysis due to its numerous functionalities for artificial intelligence and machine learning. It is also becoming the standard in education. All first year coding program at schools like Cornell, Stanford, Dartmouth, Michigan, SUTD use Python as the language of instruction.

Python is the preferred language for novice programmers for several reasons: it’s a high level programming language which means the syntax used in the codes are very close to English language. This makes it simpler and easier for any student to quickly learn how to program in an efficient way. At The Lab, your child learns Python with great ease while having fun!

In The Lab, an average student require only a span of six modules to be able to read, understand, and write codes in native Python on their own. This level corresponds to our Advanced program. After this level, students are encouraged to explore Python further with our elective programs such as Data Sciences.

Like most schools, we teach Coding too. However, our focus is to teach Coding to acquire Computational Thinking in the most efficient way and to ensure that your child develop the right skills for the future with high connectivity to industry organizations. There is a high level of social development and peer relationships as your child will be interacting with other children of different ages and schools.