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Some of our bright science students were invited to figure out some interesting engineering conundrums as part of a practical workshop.

The College was delighted to welcome Peter Barclay (from Hyett Education) to present their fun and engaging EKO Robotics Challenge to our Year 9 students.

These were two brilliant sessions based around...

...and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and students were informed on how these may help in providing necessary solutions to a variety of environmental and man-made problems.

They then had the opportunity to construct and programme their own robots as part of practical activities, and then use their imagination and engineering skills to complete challenges linked to some real world problems.

As can be seen below, what should be a simple pathway has been blocked by two stray boulders making it impassable.  Can our students create a robot, and programme it to follow the path and remove the obstacles?   A Good Start Even better...with a twist

Mr Barclay who led the sessions said he was very “impressed” on how quickly the first class of learners understood the individual tasks and their fast pace in working out solutions.

He also said he found it “Interesting to see the different approaches” the other group were taking in order to engineer a solution to the scenarios and was impressed on how they “mastered” the second task especially.

A giant barrel (containing hazardous material that is too dangerous for humans to touch) needs to be moved.  Can the students create a robot and send it in to do the job for them?   Another Good Start Try again -  This time, can you turn around and head back to the start? How about following the path, going round corners and then picking up the object?

This Robotics sessions were very innovative and inspiring and the College would like to thank Mr Barclay for visiting despite the snow, as well as to Miss Davidson and Mr Skorka Brown for organising and Mrs Bowen and Mr Bridge for supervising.