A structured AI and robotics curriculum for ages 3 to 18. From a preschooler's first gear to a teenager's AI-vision competition robot, every class turns play into real problem-solving.
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Tomorrow's most valuable skills are thinking creatively, filtering what matters and solving real problems. Children learn those best through expert-guided play, so every PLAYIDEAs class is hands-on, structured and built around a challenge to solve.
Coordinating eyes, hands and mind while imagining, designing and refining their own builds.
Discovering physical science through observation, reasoning, prediction and testing.
Modeling real-life mechanisms with logic and creativity, then improving them step by step.
Code, sensors and real AI: how machines see, learn and decide, and how to use that power wisely.
Each program is designed for its age group and builds on the one before, so students grow from playful exploration to real engineering without gaps.
Ages 3–5iStory-led lessons introduce a theme, then children build it, make it move and finish with free-build time for their own designs. Early math and first engineering ideas, learned through play.
Ages 6–9iiA systematic series built on three core themes: force and structure, wheels and axles, and gears and pulleys. Each lesson sets a real-world scenario, and students engineer a motorized model to meet it.
Ages 9–14iiiStudents brainstorm solutions, then bring them to life through the robot design process: controllers, sensors, motors and code. Along the way they build and experiment with AI, learning how it works, where it fails and how to use it responsibly.
Ages 15–18ivCompetition-grade robotics on the VEX V5 platform: metal structures, smart motors and an AI Vision Sensor that recognizes objects on the field. Students code autonomous routines in Python and C++ and can compete in the VEX V5 Robotics Competition.
Our signature course sequence takes students from fundamental principles to designing technology of their own. Every level builds on the one before.
Core science behind how things stand, move and turn.
Putting those principles to work in real mechanisms.
Open challenges that call for students' own designs.
Bigger builds planned, divided and finished together.
Controllers, sensors and the basics of code.
Testing, measuring and improving robot behavior.
Robots that sense, decide and respond, with AI.
Original robots that solve real problems.
Our children will live and work alongside AI. Robotics makes it tangible: students don't just use AI, they see how it senses, learns and decides, and they build it into machines they control.
Sequences, patterns and cause and effect: the computational thinking every coder and AI builder starts with.
Block coding and first AI ideas: how a machine takes in information and turns it into a decision.
Students experiment with AI hands-on: data, training and prediction, plus where AI gets it wrong and why that matters.
Robots that see: AI vision for object detection, coded in Python and C++ to run fully autonomous competition routines.
We coach our teams and travel with them, from local qualifiers to state championships and international events. Competition teaches what a classroom can't: real deadlines, real teamwork and staying calm under pressure.
Teams explore a real-world theme, build a LEGO model with a motorized part, code it, and share their ideas at festivals where every team is celebrated.
iAn autonomous LEGO robot takes on timed missions, while the team researches a real problem and pitches its solution to judges, advancing from qualifiers to championships.
iiStudents design, build and code a VEX IQ robot, then partner with another team in alliance matches and test their driving and autonomous skills on the field.
iiiMetal-built robots, autonomous code and the season's toughest field game. Our V5 teams compete at state championships, with a path to the World Championship.
ivRobotics camps and international competitions where students meet teams from around the world, learn from them, and come home with a bigger view of what they can build.
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Every class follows the same proven arc, so children are engaged from the first minute and leave understanding the science behind what they built.
A game or real-life scenario opens the lesson and leads into the science behind it.
Teachers trained in mechanical engineering and robotics coach each student through the build and the reasoning.
Students test, fail, fix and improve, so the concept is truly theirs.
Dr. Barry Chuang holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in automation systems and robotics, and has spent decades in education, focused on robotics curriculum. He founded PLAYIDEAs in 2015 to give more children access to the best of modern STEM education. As an NSF I-Corps Entrepreneurial Lead, he brings an innovator's mindset to the classroom; as Head Judge of the New York State Robotics Competition, he knows exactly what great student engineering looks like.
“Learning shouldn't stop at textbooks. When children play with ideas, they discover what they're capable of.”
Our team keeps studying across fields, so our programs keep getting better.
Happy learners stay curious, and curiosity keeps them creating.
Play lifetime, learn lifetime, happy lifetime.
Two dedicated robotics academies, plus programs run with partner schools.
We partner with learning centers and after-school programs to offer our robotics curriculum on site, with trained teachers and a complete course pathway.
Tell us your child's age and interests. We'll recommend the right program and set up a trial class at the location nearest you.