Robotics

Bot Challenge

2023 has been another successful year of learning.  The lego mindstorm robots that we use for Robocup are now no longer being manfuactured. Our last task for this club this year has been to build a robot to compete against other bots in the club.  The challenge was to be the last bot standing inside the nominated area.  


Robotics Bot Challenge.MOV
Bot Challenge.MOV

Robotics at St Margaret's College begins in the Preschool.  Through the Junior School students are exposed to Beebot robots at years one and two.  As students progress through the Junior School they will experience various coding programmes that prepare them for robotics.  Scratch Junior and Scratch programming is used in the curriculum often starting at year 3.  By the end of year 8, students will have worked with Sphero and Micro:bits using block coding and Scratch.


Co-curricular robotics is available for students to opt into after school.

Tuesdays 3:40 - 5pm in WS101 - The Centre for Innovation.  This club begins in Week 5 of Term 1 - End of Term 3.

External Tutor: Anna runs a club for students of all levels of experience. 

Staff Supervisor: Ms Deb Scott

This club is facilitated by a paid tutor and costs are passed on to attendees


Students have the opportunity to enter the Robocup competition in August.  This is usually held at Tūranga.

2024 There has been some slight changes in the competition for Robocup.  Visit the website to see the new competition rules: https://www.robocupjunior.org.nz


2023 Robocup

Ellie and Breanna testing their Theatre performance

Amy's Robot

Bea and Millie testing the Premiere Theatre programmes

Amy competing in the Rescue competition

Learning to code the robot

 Writing and testing the code

Adding appropriate sensors to the robot so that it can read the environment

The ELEPHANT - A time consuming build

Another complex build - the Stair Climber

Robocup - Theatre

Canterbury Regional Competition happens every year around August

Robocup - Rescue

Students get to compete against other schools in a range of competitions - theatre and rescue are the most commonly chosen at SMC

Beebots used by year 1 

and 2 students