Following the success of last year, Curro once again hosted their popular Robotics competitions in association with Hands on Technologies (HOT) and Play and Build Toys. The Gauteng leg of the competition, hosted at Curro’s Woodhill College in Pretoria took place on Saturday, the 25th of July.
Two visiting learners from Curro Aurora in Randburg, Johannesburg, Ryan Everett and Aiden Venter, walked away as the overall winners of the day. With their robot named ‘Avrey’, the winning team achieved 200 out of the 220 points – the overall best in the national competition that took place in provinces across the country this week. Runner ups in second and third place were teams from Curro’s Woodhill College.
The importance of coding at school level
Five years ago it was considered adequate for learners to be computer literate, by which it was meant they needed to know how to use a computer. The fast pace of digitisation means that this is no longer sufficient. Learners need to know how computers work. They need to be taught how to write computer code.
With this need in mind, the Curro Centre for Educational Excellence (CCEE) is constantly interrogating the methodology of teaching and learning in the fields of Literacy, Mathematics, Science, Technology and Coding in the form of Robotics. Robotics has been available as a subject from Grades R – 6 at Curro schools since 2011.
The Robotics Challenge was inspired by Curro’s need to address the educational needs of the 21st Century learner.
“The Robotics Competitions encourage Curro learners to explore the world of coding in a fun, rewarding way,” says Dalene Gelderblom, a Robotics Subject Expert at CCEE. “It provides an engaging, interactive learning platform that creates a buzz of excitement in our schools.”
The Competition Challenge
On the day, participating teams arrived prepared with their pre-built basic robot as well as a clear understanding of the problem and their programme.
Learners wrote their programmes before the competition, but were not allowed to store it on their robots – it had to be rewritten on the day at the competition venue.
During the competition they could add sensors or attachments if required. Points were allocated for the robots’ ability to complete various challenges.
Game on
The Curro Robotics Competition were open to Curro learners in Grades 4 to 6, who competed in pairs. The winners, i.e. the first three teams won in incredible Lego sets as a reward for their participation. These educational prizes were sponsored by Hands on Technologies (HOT) and Play and Build Toys.
