Wednesday, 3 September 2014

Computer Programming – Lego Education Robots!


Year 6 pupils from St Margaret’s C. E Junior School, St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Hanley St Luke’s Primary School and Stoke Minister C of E Primary School enjoyed the chance to build and program their own robot using Lego education materials.

Andrew Snape, assistant head of sixth form and maths lecturer at NULC and staff from NULC Sixth Form Centre delivered sessions in St Margaret’s Primary and pupils from St Mary’s came into NULC in June 2014. In July sessions were delivered by NULC to St Luke’s and Stoke Minister pupils at Thistley Hough Academy.

The pupils very quickly assembled the robots, which are made up of various technical components of Lego, including motors, touch sensors and colour sensors.  They then programed the robots using a visual programming tool that introduces the concepts of computer code.  The pupils worked together to complete the tasks within the allocated time. Once the groups completed the tasks, they raced their robots.

Andrew Snape, said: “The aims of this activity are to teach pupils the basics of computer programming, and how we can use maths, computing, science, design and technology in an engineering context.”

Head teacher at St Margaret’s, Mr Andrew Black commented: “The pupils really enjoyed the sessions and they were full of the excitement when I was chatting with them at lunch. You undoubtedly grabbed their learning attentions and gave them something on which to build for the future.”

If you would like to organise a taster session please contact the school liaison team, Gareth Hughes and Tara Capper on 01782 254347 or email schools@nulc.ac.uk.

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