Greenside High School has offered robotics as an extramural activity for a few years and has competed in the First Lego League and Technology Challenge competitions.
Phillip Ginster and Stevens Ndawonde recently competed in the World Robot Olympiad in the open category in the Junior High age group at the Tshwane University of Technology. The theme this year was Robot Explorers, where the team designed a robot that can search and sample for extremophile micro-organisms in caves and mines.
The Grade 9 pupils competed for the first time in the Olympiad, which is an international robotics competition that has 50 countries as its members. Over 20 000 teams competed to be selected for the WRO international final which is hosted in a different country every year.
Ginster and Ndawonde had a Lego robot constructed by German-based NGO Hands on Technology that is dedicated to inspiring young people with regard to science and technology. The team, with the help of their coach Anne Ginster, develop creative and problem-solving skills through robotics challenges that mainly consist of Lego components.
The participants were also expected to give a presentation and a video elaborating on how their robot works in the booth they created. Ginster and Ndawonde did well in the regional level, allowing them to also take part in the national competition, also at TUT.
Furthermore, the Greenside pupils excelled in their age groups and were selected to represent South Africa at the International WRO on 6–8 November in Doha, Qatar.
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