As part of our School Excellence – Digital initiative we have started exploring our new VEX Robotics kits. VEX offers our pupils a rich and exciting platform to immerse themselves in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) through the fun of building robots.

Togher N.S. is a lead school in the School Excellence – Digital Initiative. This additional funding allows us to further enhance our use of I.C.T. and deliver the best educational experience for our pupils through information and computer technology.

Scratch is an excellent, engaging and fun environment for learning some fairly advanced mathematical concepts and the basics of computer science too. Scratch is deceptively simple with its palette of brightly coloured blocks. The thing about Scratch programming though is that you can do amazing things when you combine the blocks in interesting ways. As children progress they are able to use Scratch in more and more advanced ways. Scratch has a low floor, but a high ceiling.

Scratch programming allows children to use computers to express their creative ideas and solve practical problems and empowers children to be digital makers not just digital users.

Did I mention that it was engaging and fun?

” STEAM is the new STEM” – Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths. Scratch is a wonderful example of STEAM – combine artwork with coding to create an animation or game. The children in 3rd and 4th have been busy developing their STEAM skills with Scratch. Scratch is free to download here.

 

 

As a “Hands on – Minds on school” we know that children love to learn by experimenting. We are delighted with our new Photon Robot. Our School Excellence – Digital cluster has received the first of these robots to Ireland. Logical thinking ability is becoming an increasingly important skill. Photon gives children programming related challenges that allow them to develop their logical thinking ability while having great fun.

The children in 5th and 6th classes have started building Sumo Bots using their EV3 robotics kits. There is quite a bit of research involved in both the design and coding of a Sumo Bot. Each Sumo Bot is coded before competition – they are not remote controlled. The first challenge was to code the Sumo Bots to recognise the boundary line of the arena – using a colour sensor, reverse away from it and change direction. The next step will be to code our Sumo Bots to seek an opponent, using a motion sensor and to drive towards that opponent. The children are having great fun working on different coding ideas and robot designs to create the ultimate Sumo Bot.

The children in 5th and 6th have been developing their construction and coding skills using the new Mindstorms EV3 robotics kits