SJS students have fun programming robots

SJS students have fun programming robots
Posted on 09/12/2018
SJS students have fun programming robots

Dominic Tremblay leads programming

Students at St. John School had a blast battling robots yesterday as part of a fun exercise to get them interested in coding, computers and math.

"It was really fun," said Grade 3 student Avery Dumontier. "We programmed our robot to have a favourite colour and to play music and dance."

The workshop was run by Dominic Tremblay who has been providing programming to school boards, divisions, and districts in mathematics, science, technology, social studies, robotics, and literacy for the past seven years.

Students were divided up into three groups according to their grade with each group getting to take part in their own workshop. Each group was then given different tasks to program their robot with.

Grade 7 student Maveric Aiken explained what his group had to do with their robots.

"The first thing we did was to try and get our robot to go around a cone. After that, we had to program our robot to stay inside a black circle and avoid white. After that we had robot wars!" he said.

Students in the Grade 6-7 group programmed their robots to try and tip their opposing robot over or push it outside a black circle.

"The robot wars was my favourite part because it was fun and we won every battle," continued Maveric.

The aim of the workshop was to get the children interested in coding and computers, while also using an interactive way to teach math.

Bronwen McCann is in Grade 4 and she had a great time programming her robot.

"We made them have a favourite colour and when they saw that colour they had a disco party. They would go in circles and sing songs. Seeing them dance was my favourite part," she said.

St. John School is in the process of creating a makerspace in their school where technology like robots would be used. A makerspace is an area where children have both the tools and space to use their creativity to build new things.

The hope is to have tools like robots, computers, lego, a 3D printer and more so that children get comfortable using innovative technology in a productive and safe way. Makerspace learning also empowers students, helping them to shift from being passive consumers of information and products to active creators and innovators.

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