In June we headed up north to Cairns to visit a few of our schools as part of the Gateway to Industry Schools ICT Program. While we were up there we visited Bentley Park College and the TAFE campus to check out all the Virtual Reality work they're doing, particularly in the health sector.
We also dropped into Cairns State High School, a GISP ICT partner and a Micromelon school. We met with the Design and Technology teachers there to talk through how the Rover can be used to teach design. 3D printing and robotics have a really natural mesh. We got a tour of their classrooms and saw their 3D printing, laser cutting, and even resin printing capabilities. It was a great chance to grab feedback from more teachers using the Micromelon platform, which feeds straight back into our product development.
On the last day of the trip we got back to Cairns State High to see two classes working on their Sumo robotics unit. Tim shared some tips and tricks on programming a really effective sumo robot. It was great to see the students using Rovers alongside the ACS-supported Micromelon Robot Simulator to tune their sumo robots and practice against both real and virtual opponents.
"Teaching with robotics offers so many learning opportunities for students. Programming the robots can reinforce the use of coding languages and software, and working with robotic components and sensors advances an understanding of hardware. Through the setting of challenging tasks, students use data, problem solving and collaboration to succeed just as they would in the workplace. It is great to see how emphatically Cairns State High School has taken to the Micromelon Robot Simulator and Code Editor to continue developing STEM skills in students." - Matthew Jorgensen, ACS
The trip was a great chance to visit the region, talk to teachers, and improve what we're offering outside of South East Queensland. Huge thanks to ACS and the Gateway to Industry Schools ICT Program for supporting the trip and the Micromelon Robot Simulator in schools around Queensland.