We've partnered with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) to deliver robotics and coding workshops through the Gateway to Industry Schools Program (GISP) across Queensland. The partnership pairs our hands-on robotics platform with ACS's network of schools and gives students proper industry-relevant STEM experiences.
The Gateway to Industry Schools Program is a Queensland Government initiative that builds partnerships between industry and schools to give students exposure to real career pathways. Through this collaboration we run workshops where students program Rovers, work through challenges, and learn about careers in robotics, engineering, and software development.
The first workshops have been delivered across a range of South East Queensland schools, reaching students from a real mix of backgrounds and year levels. The sessions cover introductory coding for beginners and more advanced challenges for students with a bit of experience already.
Teachers in the program have told us the Micromelon workshops are a useful complement to their existing Digital Technologies curriculum. Programming a physical robot tends to make abstract coding concepts a lot more tangible, and that's been the consistent feedback so far.
This is our first large-scale institutional partnership and we're really excited about it. Plenty of room to grow from here.