A command becomes tangible when something moves
During the visit to WhalesBot in Shanghai, the group toured exhibition, demonstration and production spaces. There were construction kits, robots and drones, as well as children in the learning environment. The presentation connected this equipment to an educational approach: build, program and solve challenges.
One part of the discussion distinguished construction from programming. Students can build some devices themselves; others arrive assembled and allow them to work with commands. The drones, for example, were presented with app-based programming and competition tasks. These are different experiences within the same educational journey.
This is an interesting entry point into technology. A child can formulate an instruction and observe a physical result. If the robot does not reach the expected place, there is something concrete to discuss: the order of commands, a measurement, the assembly or a sensor reading. Errors become part of investigation in an activity designed for that purpose.
Experience in the field comes before the brand
WhalesBot was founded in 2018. The official program of the 2024 World Robot Conference identifies Fei Xufeng as its founder and dates his work in educational robotics to 2002. These are different milestones: his earlier experience in the field and the creation of the company did not begin in the same year. Biography in the World Robot Conference program, printed pages 50 and 51.
The panels photographed during the tour also revisit years before the brand, with references to educational robotics competitions and laboratories. This continuity helps frame the project as a combination of teaching experience, equipment development and organized challenges, rather than simply the launch of a toy.
The company’s timeline records OceanLevel and ENJOY AI in 2019, a STEM teacher-training initiative in 2022 and an educational drone in 2023. The company has added layers to its offering: equipment, teaching materials, support for educators and reasons to keep practicing. WhalesBot’s institutional history.
The educational product is bigger than the robot
The explanation to the group emphasized an integrated offering of equipment, a teaching platform, content and competitions. In the discussion of distribution, schools were described as the main channel, although there are also consumer sales. For an edtech company, this changes the business design: the buyer, teacher and child have different needs.
WhalesBot’s public offering combines hardware, programming tools, curriculum, teacher training and challenges. OceanLevel organizes projects and content; ENJOY AI expands opportunities to practice. The robot gains a role within this system, rather than relying only on the excitement of opening the box. The company’s educational approach.
Teachers need an activity that fits into class time, clear objectives and resources to guide students through difficulties. Schools need to assess implementation, training, replacements and continuity. Children need to understand the challenge, take part in decisions and have room to try. The quality of the experience depends on connecting these three perspectives.
For founders, this offers a perspective on product and distribution. A device can spark interest at the first encounter, but curriculum, support and progression help sustain use. The relevant question is what makes a school keep working with it after the initial demonstration.
Start with play and increase the complexity
The catalog distinguishes learning levels. For younger children, there are kits with large blocks and resources such as cards and tangible commands. Later stages introduce visual programming, sensors and languages such as Scratch, Python and C. This progression does not mean that a three-year-old should write Python, or that every kit has all these functions. Examples and progression in the official catalog.
An educational example would be to build a vehicle and ask it to follow a route. First, the student plans the sequence. Then they test it. If something does not work, they compare their intention with what happened and change one part of the solution. At a more advanced stage, a sensor can add a condition: perform an action only when an obstacle is detected.
Enjoyment can give meaning to the effort of repeating, adjusting and explaining. The goal does not have to be training professionals at an early age. It can be building familiarity with instructions, breaking problems down and investigation. The activity should remain age-appropriate, with room for participation and supervision.
The Chinese context: experiment early and progress in stages
In December 2024, China’s Ministry of Education called for stronger AI education in schools. The guidance proposes exploratory experiences in the early years, understanding and application in subsequent stages, and projects in upper secondary school. It also recommends task- and problem-based learning, teacher training and wider access in rural and remote regions. This is a public policy direction, not evidence that every school already carries out these activities. Official guidance on AI education.
The visit offers an example of how companies can build resources for this environment: equipment that enables experimentation, organized content and shared challenges. Knowing the product is not enough to draw conclusions about the whole Chinese education system. The case helps illustrate a connection between industry, schools and technology education.
It is also useful to distinguish programming, robotics and AI. A robot executing a sequence can teach logic without using machine learning. An activity involving sensors can explore observation and decisions without relying on generative AI. Understanding these differences is part of technological literacy and avoids calling every automated movement artificial intelligence.
Possible benefits and how to assess learning
Educational robotics can provide activities for planning, testing and debugging solutions. To assess learning, what matters is observing what children can explain and do independently at their stage of schooling. Completing a tutorial does not, by itself, show that they understood the logic or can solve another problem.
| During the activity | What can be practiced | How to observe it |
|---|---|---|
| Ordering commands | Sequencing and planning | The student explains why order matters. |
| Breaking down a challenge | Problem decomposition | The student separates the steps and identifies what needs testing. |
| Correcting a route | Debugging and cause-and-effect relationships | The student proposes a hypothesis and changes one element at a time. |
| Using sensors | Conditional decisions | The student connects a condition to the corresponding action. |
| Building as a group | Collaboration and communication | The group discusses choices and explains its design. |
Research findings need to be read in context. A 2019 Italian study examined 83 children aged eight to ten and found better performance on computational thinking tasks among participants in a robotics laboratory. Its design was quasi-experimental, without a baseline assessment, which limits causal conclusions. Study published in Informatics.
In a German study published in 2026 involving 66 first-year pupils, six robotics teaching units did not produce a statistically significant advantage over the comparison group. The short duration and sample characteristics also limit interpretation. Neither of these two studies evaluated WhalesBot. Study published in Education Sciences.
The practical conclusion is to assess the educational approach alongside the equipment. Objectives, duration, teacher preparation and monitoring criteria matter. Having a robot in the classroom does not guarantee greater intelligence, an overall improvement in grades or programming proficiency. Those outcomes would require their own evidence.
A community sustains what begins in the classroom
Competitions add challenges and gatherings to the learning journey. In the space visited, panels and a certificate presented the history of ENJOY AI. Guinness records 16,399 teams at the 2024 global final, held in Shanghai on December 14 and 15. The record belongs to the ENJOY AI organizing committee and refers to teams, not a count of unique children. Guinness World Records entry.
A shared challenge can give context to what has been learned: build something that performs a task, explain choices and compare strategies. The educational value does not have to be limited to the winner. Preparation, attempts and discussion of the solutions also need to be part of the design.
For an educational technology company, community and challenges can bring schools, teachers and students together. They broaden experience and create reasons to return to the product. This perspective still requires attention to access, the quality of activities and the participation of beginners.
An operation sits between the demonstration and the school
The tour included electronic components, assembly, packaging, inventory and manual checking stages. The photos help show that behind the learning experience there is also a physical product involving manufacturing, quality control and logistics.
The space brings together equipment from different brands. One robot photographed in front of a board is SenseRobot; the movement and storage system includes the HIKROBOT brand. These records show the environment visited and should not be used to attribute all the technology on display to WhalesBot.
To bring this kind of solution to new schools, it is useful to ask: who installs and maintains the equipment, how do teachers prepare, what happens when a part is missing and how do students progress to the next challenge? These questions connect teaching, product and operations.
What this encounter offers people building education and technology
- Design the first experience. A simple challenge with a visible result can give meaning to a first encounter with programming.
- Build a learning journey. Complexity, language and independence should grow in line with the stage of learning.
- Support the teacher. Equipment should be part of an activity with objectives and monitoring criteria.
- Measure understanding. Observing explanations, tests and corrections is more useful than only counting kits delivered.
- Plan for continuity. Curriculum, support and community help connect the initial demonstration to use over time.
WhalesBot makes a possibility tangible: introducing children to programming and robotics concepts through concrete, enjoyable experiences. The next challenge is to sustain that curiosity with good activities, prepared teachers and evidence of learning. That continuity is where a demonstration can become a meaningful educational experience.