Two pupils from Curro Meridian Cosmo City private schools who invented a cave-cleaning robot triumphed to second position in the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) National competition.
Tshimologo Mafokosho and Rethabile Moeketsi scooped the silver medal in a competition that was held at Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria on 10 September.
The Grade 6 pupils invented their robot, which they call ‘Mrs Kling’ after visiting the Sterkfontein Caves earlier this year.
Following this year’s theme of recycling, the pair immediately thought about building a robot that would help preserve the caves and keep them clean. “Our teacher entered us into this competition and we decided to do something unique,” said Mafokosho.
She added that they saw a lot of litter in the cave. The pupils initially built about eight robots before they invented Mrs Kling.
“As soon as Mafokosho asked me about cleaning the caves to compliment the recycling theme, I said let’s put this idea into practice,” said Moeketsi.
The school, which is only two years old, entered the competition for the first time this year. Intermediate phase head at the school, Amanda Calitz explained, “We heard about the competition after visiting the cave. It was a coincidence.”
According to the school’s operational head, Swartbooi Sibanyoni, robotics is part of the curriculum for Curro, but not Meridian schools of which they are part. “Here we do robotics as part of the extra-mural activities, not part of the curriculum,” he said.
He emphasised that it was the school’s mandate to train children to acquire 21st-century skills which are critical thinking and creativity.
“Pupils had to find out what the problem was, and then they do scientific investigations and formulate a hypothesis.” Sibanyoni indicated that these two pupils’ scientific investigation and robot creation caught the interest of Steve Tacker from Witwatersrand University.
“From there, everyone got to know about these pupils and their research,” he concluded.
Details: Curro Meridian Cosmo City Private Schools 087 285 4690.
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