On April 20, Yorkies in Gr. 6 and 7 participated in the GearBots Challenge held at the Skills Canada Provincial Competition in the TradeX Centre in Abbotsford.
The event was a pilot robotics challenge that consisted of 5 missions (and 2 bonus missions) that the students had to accomplish. The overall general theme was “In the Restaurant,” and sample missions included: putting dirty dishes (indicated by Duplo/Lego blocks) in the dishwasher (a designated corner of the playing field). While doing this, students had to decide what attachments to build, and how to program the robot to accomplish these tasks.
The interesting thing about this competition was that it was not based on how many points you achieved. Instead, the purpose of the challenge was to provide an opportunity for students to work together in engineering teams to creatively solve problems. In other words, it was more about the process rather than the outcome.
The girls should be commended for their efforts, as many were new to this type of challenge, and they did not receive any prior formalized instructions. Congrats to Nicole, Ann, Ariana (Grade 7) and Louise, Michelle N., Jan, Jessica, Rachael and Michelle C. (Grade 6). Watch the video slideshow of the day’s events below.
Sven Braune
Technology Coordinator
Loved your video of the event. Glad you all had fun. Hope to see you at the challenge in 2012.