LEGO ROBOTICS

Anne Button-Smith, Patrice Shadbolt and Craig Hollingsworth have been supporting a small group of children each Tuesday lunchtime to work with our new Lego Robotic kits.  The children have had to build the robot and now they are in the process of learning how to program it.  This is a challenging process as the programming is done on a computer and then the robot is hooked up to the computer to receive the commands.

The robot is then “tested” to see if the commands were appropriate.  The robots need to be programmed to complete an obstacle course and the children can also use the on board sound and touch sensors to help direct the robot through the course.  There is a lot of maths involved as the children have to measure the distances involved as well as the angle of movements, not to mention the programming itself.

As the robots take a long time to build we are not in a position to offer multiple lunchtime groups as dismantling the robots at the end of each lunchtime is not an option.  We are however looking at purchasing more sets of the Lego products (more basic ones) so that we can open it up to other children.  There will also be opportunities through the year for certain year groups to use the robotics kits if it fits in with their UOI.