Outreach Program
The Outreach Program extends the Robert Feigin Memorial Scholarship Trust's science programs and opportunities beyond the walls of The King David School, where they have traditionally been focussed. to reach a wider range of students and in particular to target those from underprivileged backgrounds. To this end, we have partnered with the Ardoch Youth Foundation to actively support science activities in other schools around Victoria.
Summary
2017 Outreach Activities
This year's activities have been focussed on the Robots in Jabiru program.
2016 Outreach Activities
Christ the King Primary School goes to national championships
Thanks to support from The Trust, the FIRST LEGO League team from Christ the King Primary School in Newcomb, Geelong, traveled to Sydney for the national championships and managed to secure fifth place out of a pool of 40 teams.
This is an example of our Outreach Program yielding tangible results, as without the guidance from The King David School, the support from Ardoch, and the partnership between them which was fostered by The Trust, these students would not have been able to establish a viable FLL Robotics team. And now that the program is established at the school, we expect a team to be fielded in 2017 and beyond, allowing even more students to benefit.
The school commented that the students felt privileged to be able to represent not only their own school, but the state of Victoria when they competed in the national championships.
Read more here.
KDS Robotics team hosts Seaford Park Primary School
On 18 May The King David School hosted a team of students from Seaford Park Primary School. The students were taken on a journey of building and programming robots from LEGO. Aided by KDS senior students the Seaford Park students were quickly testing their designs on the challenge mat.
Seaford Park is now planning on competing at this year's FIRST LEGO League State tournament. Our team, which donated the FLL mat to the school following their visit, will continue to work with the students as they prepare for this year's FLL season.
Photos from the event
The following email from Angela Carter, the Ardoch Partnership Coordinator:
Can I tell you that I taught for many years myself and I’ve rarely seen that level of engagement and enjoyment in a lesson. What a joy! If you could have heard how excited those little boys were on the bus back to school it would have made you smile. They were busily planning how to stage a surprise assembly for the school so they could show everyone what their robots could do. Could you also thank your amazing students for their patience, encouragement and positive mentoring and for the way they guided their charges towards collaborative work and thinking around the problem rather than just doing it for them. Thanks also to King David School for being so welcoming to all of us.
Read more about the event in the KDS newsletter here.
2015 Outreach Activities
In 2015 Immersion sessions were run back-to-back, on 17 June at Northern Bay College, Corio, and on 18 June at Sunshine College. Both of these schools then went on to have FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams, supported by Ardoch, the King David School, and the Trust.
Photos from the 2015 Immersion events
Sunshine College students working on the FLL Challenge Trash Trek.jpg
2014 Outreach Activities
In 2014, Trustees of the Robert Feigin Memorial Scholarship Trust introduced staff from the Ardoch Youth Foundation, which works with disadvantaged students in Victoria, to Milorad Cerovac and other staff at the King David School who are involved in the FIRST robotics programs. Isobel Michael, Ardoch's Philanthropy Executive, immediately saw the potential of adding FIRST programs to their repertoire of activities. These teams have the support and guidance of the very experienced teachers from the King David School, which have been running FIRST programs in association with the Trust for a decade. This is perhaps the most important outreach activity undertaken by the Trust to date.
Coinciding with our 20th anniversary, the Ardoch-King David partnership is a testament to the Trust's success at achieving our core value of promoting science education and encouraging students' passion for science.
FLL Immersion Day in 2014 at King David with five schools in attendance