Last term 20 enthusiastic and highly energetic Yr7 students participated in the STEM/Aerospace Technologies Immersion day. These are great numbers and I should add that I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were 7 young ladies that were part of the day.
The first session started with a robotics problem designed by Mrs Chambers. Using Lego EV3 hardware and software, the students had to follow the 4 steps that are performed in yr9 STEM, yr10 STEM/Aerospace and yr11 and 12 Aerospace Systems, these being: 1. Explore the problem. 2. Develop Ideas. 3. Generate a solution, and finally 4. Evaluate and refine.
Mrs Chambers took the students through all the steps starting off with a mind map to dig down into what actually needs to be done and what resources are available – in this case, the robot ala Covid-19, had to deliver a supplies package (in this case a ping-pong ball) to a lockdown area with no human intervention. Students built their robots and were able to get them to navigate a line autonomously, stop in front of the building (a cardboard box), and then automatically deliver the item into the building.
All teams came up with innovative solutions with several teams actually completing the mission successfully.
Anthony Banks – STEM and Aerospace
