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Robotics Program

Nearly everyone is familiar with the LEGO brick. It seems to span differences in age, gender, culture, and levels of skill. It is therefore the ideal classroom solution which can include all students in the learning process.

The Southport School has developed an Industry link with Modern Teaching Aids, a major Educational Resource Suppler to all Australian Schools. The link has enabled the School to develop a ‘Prep Year to Year 10’ Lego Technology program.

All the courses are based on a problem-solving approach that takes into account the differences in the abilities of individual students. Students learn to work together on solving challenging problems, thereby providing them with an important basis for acquiring a wide range of technology knowledge and personal skills for the future.

Why teach with Lego?

The different Year level courses are based on a problem-solving approach that takes into account the differences in the abilities of individual students. Students learn to work together on solving challenging problems, thereby providing them with an important basis for acquiring a wide range of personal skills for the future through:

Promoting creative thinking
Improving communication skills
Strengthening the ability to acquire understanding.

Program details are as follows:

Prep Year – Year 2:

In these years, boys develop fine motor skills and investigate simple building, balancing and basic mechanical knowledge by using the Duplo Tech machines, Kid K’Nex and specialised Duplo kits.

Year 3 – Year 4:

Students have experiences using the mini Lego Machine and Powered Mechanisms kits to explore mechanisms and the related terminology.

Year 5:

The energy kits are utilised in Year 5 and allow students’ to develop a wider understanding of Renewable energies and forces.

Year 6:

The Robotics Program begins in Year 6 with a 12 week introduction into simple robotics and programming. The course is taught in the Senior School Robotics lab and boys use the Lego Mindstorm kits and program using Pilot levels Robolab.

Year 7:

The Year 7 transition students continue their Robotic training and begin to use the Inventor and Investigator Levels of Robolab.

Year 8:

Year 8 students have a tri semester of Robotics and use the Advanced Team Challenge Robotics sets to build and program robots to compete in class challenges like Hill Climbing, Robot Sumo and ‘Widget’ Collecting.

Year 9:

In 2008, Year 9 will be able to elect to take Robotics as a one year course. Boys will use the Lego RCX and NXT robots and program in Robolab Inventor level 4 and in basic ‘Robot C’. Boys will also use the datalogging part of Robolab to investigate various scientific principles and theories.

Year 10:

The current Year 10 Information Processing Technology students are learning how to program the Lego Robots in ‘Robot C’. This text based language is one of the most popular ways of program Robots and is used in universities throughout the world.

The Southport School has its own Young Engineers’ Society ‘YES’ which meets weekly after school. The Society has been a huge success for the School in various Local, State and International competitions and it has student membership throughout Years 7 –11.

The ‘YES’ Students develop advanced skills in programming and building robots to be entered into the various Robotics competitions. Junior Students progress to a high degree of programming knowledge to be able to solve the Dance and Rescue tasks. The Senior boys enter into the challenging Premier Rescue and Robo Soccer events.

For further information regarding our Robotics program, please contact the Admissions Office on + 61 1300 877 269.

Page last modified 15-Nov-2007