Please visit our website: www.mgeniusacademy.com
Or email info@mgeniusacademy.com for more information
— FAQs—
1. What is the age range for children to attend classes at Mgenius Academy?
We are an educational institution for K-8.
2. Are the classes taught in English or Chinese?
All classes are taught in English, except for Thursday’s Maker’s club that goes from 3:30-5:00 pm, which is taught in Chinese.
3. Where are you located? Is it easy to find parking?
Our address is: Suite 300, 288 Walnut street, Newton. 02460.
You can also navigate to our center by entering “MGenius academy” on google map. We are located in between Star Market and Newton North High school. There are a lot of street parking spaces and there’s also a huge parking lot outside the Star market.
4. What’s the difference between Genius Workshop, Apprenticeship and Maker’s Club? How do I decide which curriculum to choose?
Genius Workshop follows a spiral upward approach with structured lesson plans. The lesson’s structure is often divided into 4-5 parts:
First and Second Parts: Content- Teacher spends 5-15 minutes going over the concept involved in the project students are making.
Third part: Maker’s Time- students use the kit and tools to actually build their projects. Some examples are hydraulic caterpillars, mini fans that change speed, light-controlled vehicles etc.
Fourth part: Design and Challenge- Students do different challenges or experiments to improve their products. For example, when building an air cannon, students change the size of the holes to decide which sized hole will be the most powerful to participate in a challenge to see who can shoot down the most number of markers.
Fifth part: Show time- Students take turns to share out what they made and how it works.
Students only take one class per week. The same concept will appear at different time periods within the course, gradually progressing. Genius Workshop is divided into three age groups: Enlightenment (recommended age: K-G2); Exploration (G2-G4); and Innovation (G4-G6). During the courses, children will use laser cutting machines, 3D printers, and also engage with coding as tools to help them create their products.
Apprenticeship is designed with completing one large product in mind and is suitable for ages (G5-G7). The concept is for young engineers to work with their mentors. Mentors modularize the large project to facilitate learning while practicing. They go through an engineering design process repeatedly where they ask a question, think about their constraints, build their prototypes and then improve their designs. In apprenticeship, students learn the concept as they are building their final product.
Some current apprenticeship that we offer are:
Drivable Electric Cars:
Saturdays 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM
Saturdays: 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM
Combat Robots:
Sundays from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM
Sundays: 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM.
The Makers Club revolves around a small theme each time, offering a more open-ended environment. The goal is to provide children with a hands-on creative space. The course content does not follow a fixed pattern. After introducing a project, teachers encourage young engineers to freely unleash their creativity. Themes include conductive dough, strawbees structures, toothbrush robots, cardboard construction, and more. Suitable for ages: K-G2..
5. What are the times for Genius Workshop?
Enlightenment (K-G2)：
Mon-Fri: 3:30-5:00 pm, pick one time slot
Sat- Sun： 9-10:30； 11-12:30； 1:30- 3:00； 3:30-5:00, Pick one time slot
Exploration (G2-G4 )：
Mon-Fri: 3:30-5:00 pm, pick one time slot
Sat- Sun： 9-10:30； 11-12:30； 1:30- 3:00； 3:30-5:00, Pick one time slot
Innovation (G4-G5 )： Sat/Sun ： 9-10:30； 11-12:30； 1:30- 3:00； 3:30-5:00
6. What are the times for the Maker's Club?
Wed： 1:30-3:00 pm
Thurs： 3:30 - 5:00 pm （Taught in Chinese ）
Sun： 9-10:30； 11-12:30； 1:30- 3:00； 3:30-5:00
7. You mentioned pick up time is 6 pm during weekdays, do we need to pay an extra fee for that?
No. It’s already part of the tuition.
8. Do you offer trial classes?
1. Yes. Please fill out an interest form on our website and someone will be in touch with you shortly.
www.mgeniusacademy.com → go to the bottom of our schedule & fees.
2. Tuition and materials fee are also refundable before 12/31/23. The refund will be prorated based on the number of classes taken (discounted price no longer applies to the classes taken when issuing a refund). The materials fee for apprenticeship is non-refundable.
9. I’m worried the lessons are too hard and my kid can't focus for that long.
Our philosophy is to learn by making, not by listening. We have spent 100+ hours to design our curriculum and modify our curriculum so the content is accessible and engaging for the kids. We limit our content instructions to 5-15 minutes across all of the curriculum. Furthermore, we have a very small class size (no more than 8 students) and each class will have a teaching assistant to really help our kids.
10 . My kid is very shy, and I am worried that my kid will not share anything during showtime or feel very stressed.
Our teachers will certainly be patient and progressively encourage children to share their work and the challenges they encounter during the process. If a child is initially hesitant to speak, we will encourage them to share through writing or drawing. We have also prepared reward coins and a variety of prizes to encourage children to confidently present and share
11.How are you different from other robotics programs or organizations like kiwico?
Our well-structured curriculum really focuses on fostering a scientific and engineering mindset where kids learn by doing and experimenting. They get to draw their own conclusions and learn about the real world applications. Kiwico and many robotics courses are based on assembling, which children might not necessarily understand the underlying principles of. They might just find it fun and enjoyable to put things together, similar to playing with LEGO. Our courses emphasize starting from the basics, enabling young children to understand the working principles before learning how to apply them. After our course, students will not only have gained strong hands-on experiences, but would also have a strong fundamental understanding of mechanical and electrical engineering as well as coding. We emphasize that the laser cutter, 3D printer, and coding are all tools. Once young engineers learn to use these tools and adopt an engineer's mindset, they can create their own unique products according to their desires.
12. Any discounts if I sign up now?
We are currently offering several promotions:
1. If you sign up without any trial classes before 9/1/23, you will enjoy 12% off regular tuition (Please refer to our website for Schedule & Fees ), no registration fee and an extra $100 credit that can be applied towards your tuition for the first 30 people who sign up with us.
2. We offer sibling discounts, where the second child can enjoy an extra $50 off tuition, which cannot be combined with other promotions
3. If you sign up for at least two courses, the second course can also receive an extra $50 off tuition, which can be combined with other promotions
4. If you successfully refer a new student to sign up for our class, you will receive $50.
13. How do I sign up for your class?
Contact us through Wechat or email us info@mgeniusacademy.com. We will send you a registration form to fill out and arrange payments.
14. Where can I learn more about your program
Please fill out the interest form on our website or email info@mgeniusacademy.com directly.
Please also check our website：mgeniusacademy.com