An exciting way to get our girls involved in robotics is through competitions. We hold an annual Interhouse Robotics Competition where the girls bring their enthusiasm, knowledge and skills to compete against the clock and peers to complete tasks. This post explains more.
Students who learn robotics develop problem-solving skills and learn a variety of engineering concepts and universal skills. Students acquire the ability to quickly find solutions to problems, they get to reveal their curiosity, research skills, teamwork and creativity. In robotics students have the opportunity to learn software-based skills such as programming and coding. Robotics competitions, along with robotics education, prepares students for the future, where cyber-physical systems such as space-missions, autonomous cars, and smart factories will be of great importance.
This year a team entered RoboCup Junior Australia which is an open platform robotics competition for students of all ages. St Aidan’s team of Yr 7 and Yr 6 students entered the ‘OnStage’ division which is an integration of Science, Technology and the Arts (STEAM).
OnStage challenges teams to design, build, and program robots to perform. Our team called ‘Aidan’s Ladies’ decided on a pirate theme. Each team is scored on their performance and their technical interview. ‘Aidan’s Ladies’ created a pirate ship to follow a line using the colour sensor, ultrasonic on the octopus picked up the ship approaching and moved its 8 arms. The ship continued its journey to find the treasure and avoided being hit by a cannon ball. Treasure was found where ‘the cross marked’ the spot!
Our team worked well together to win the regional competition and then went on to State Championship and placed 2nd.
I’m sure this will inspire more girls to get involved next year!