Extra Curricula. Robotics

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1 Extra Curricula Robotics On any given lunch time, you will find a buzz in the library as students work on a range of projects they are passionate about, sometimes independently and other times being coached by a teacher. Many grade 5 and 6 students have been working on developing robots in order to compete in the Melbourne and State Robocup competitions. Robocup Junior is designed to introduce RoboCup to primary and secondary school children, as well as undergraduates who do not have the resources to get involved in the senior leagues. The focus in the junior league is on education. RoboCup is an international effort whose purpose is to foster Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics research by providing a standard problem where a wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined. As well, the initiative serves as a basis for project-oriented education. The ultimate goal of RoboCup is that by the middle of the 21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall play (and win!) a soccer game against the (human) world champions. In the past we have enters teams in the dance, rescue and soccer sections of the competition. This year we are focusing just on soccer, although I don t think our students robots are quite ready to take on a real life soccer team yet. Having said that, in the recent Melbourne Championship all four St Augustine s teams reached the finals. Our team, Piece of Cake (Imogen, Nathan, Tristan, Ben and Alastaire), were runners up in the Gen II league. robots. We are feeling excited and under a little pressure as the State Finals in two weeks at the University of Melbourne. We are sending our four teams and we are confident that they will have developed sensational The robots we use are constructed out of specialised Lego and have a variety of specialised sensors. The data is sent back in to the body of robot, which is essentially a basic computer. The challenge for our students is not just constructing the robots (that is the easy part), but in writing programs that enable the robots to react and respond to their environment. Student may not realise it, but in getting the robots to play soccer they are becoming skilled at computational thinking.

2 an example of a student program This competition is for the grade 5 & 6 s, but it will be opened to other students in term 4 who would like to gain some experience in robotics. Grade 3/4 Camp to Anglesea When the buses departed St Augustine's for Anglesea Camp on Monday morning it was miserable and cold and it stayed that way for most of the day. But it didn't dampen our spirits because there were things to do and places to go in Anglesea. The students had time for four out of six rotations - mountain bike riding, beach ramble, brain games, giant swing, low ropes and orienteering. In the evening we had a beautiful liturgy followed by a trivia night.

3 On Tuesday we woke up to a crisp clear sky and our on-the-spot weatherman, Anthony, informed us that it was a chilly 3.5 deg. That spurred everyone on and despite the tiredness we were determined to enjoy the final activities. Thank you to our parent helpers - Damian, Anthony, Brendan and Andrew. Your work and companionship was very much appreciated by the students and the teachers. Thank you to our teachers - Ms Olivia, Mrs Beerens, Ms Taylor, Ms Mugavin and Ms Costello. We know that there was a lot of work behind the scenes in order to ensure that everything ran smoothly and that everyone had a great experience.

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