STEM class

GROUP 1 - Autonomous cars and Edison Robots.

We looked at the future of driving and self-driving (autonomous) cars. We looked at how we could try this technology using our school's Edison robots. We programmed Edison to follow a line, then we designed tracks for it to follow. We found that Edison finds sharp turns difficult to follow, and that sometimes it goes off the track. No wonder the self-drive cars are still having a lot of testing to make sure they are safe to go on our roads!

Next we designed and created buildings for our town out of lego. We had a challenge to use one colour of lego to see what we could create. The kids were amazing with their ideas - we had a factory, a house with a large roof for shade and shelter, a footbridge, futuristic designs, houses with chimneys and other buildings. Once we had created our town we tested Edison to see if it could follow the roads without crashing into buildings.

With Science and Technology and new inventions, a lot of testing and problem-solving is needed. Sometimes all goes to plan, but often we need to observe carefully and think about what we could do to improve an idea. There os definitely a lot for inventors to think about to ensure self-drive cars will be safe for everyone!

At the end we re-programmed Edison and had a fun robot battle - sumo-style where Edisons had to try to push each other out of the arena.

JUNIOR STEM GROUP - MONDAY 23rd SEPTEMBER 2019

A group of excited young boys got to use the STEM room to have their experience. We discussed what STEM means (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths - sometimes with added arts to become STEAM). There is so much involved in STEM, and this experience used a bit of Science, technology, engineering, and maths.

We started with technology and our introduction to 'Edison'. We thought about how to give Edison instructions (to programme it). We used the barcode instructions to make Edison follow a line. Then we tested the first group's tracks - did they work well? Where did we notice Edison having problems? (Science - noticing, thinking).

Then we designed our own tracks in groups - trying to make sure we designed one that was easy for Edison to follow. We used the engineering design process - Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve.

Our next challenge was to design and create a bridge so that pedestrians could safely get across our tracks, but Edison still drive underneath. We had to use maths to estimate and measure to make sure Edison could fit. We had to use our engineering design process to create and improve until we got a bridge that worked. Look at the great design solutions we came up with!

Nice work junior STEM team - you are great engineers!