Archive

Robots take centre stage for York Region elementary students

March 16, 2016   ·   0 Comments

Nobleton Public School was one of 26 elementary schools in York Region to take part in the region’s annual Robotics Tournament last Wednesday, held at the school for the ninth year.

By Jake Courtepatte
The school gymnasium of 2016 is no longer only for dodge ball.
Last Wednesday, Nobleton Public School was filled with roughly 350 students from 26 elementary across York Region for the 12th annual Robotics Tournament, featuring Lego Mindstorm robots. Students worked together to complete motor challenges using their creations.
Tournament coordinator John Tovey, who has been organizing the event for the past eight years, said it continues to grow each year.
“More and more students are getting involved,” said Tovey. “Learning about technology is such an important skill to have. These kids are learning to program at a young age, and it’s something that could be really useful for them in the future.”
This year’s them revolved around pets, with two teams competing at a time to collect goldfish using their custom-built robots, as well as a turtle rescue challenge, where competitors had to “rescue” turtles from the road and drop them in a pond.
Tovey and the organizers send out a package containing the rules sometime early in the new year, allowing participating schools a few months to prepare their robots. On the day of the competition, they get about 45 minutes to make any final adjustments.
Nicole Adams, a first year teacher at Kleinburg Public School, said she is amazed at what the young students can accomplish.
“They’re often the ones teaching us with this sort of thing,” said Adams. “The skill that the younger generation has when it comes to technology is just amazing. It almost seems to come naturally.”
It was the ninth year that the tournament has been held at Nobleton P.S.

         

Facebooktwittermail


Readers Comments (0)


Sorry, comments are closed on this post.

Page Reader Press Enter to Read Page Content Out Loud Press Enter to Pause or Restart Reading Page Content Out Loud Press Enter to Stop Reading Page Content Out Loud Screen Reader Support
Open