Learners at Pridwin Junior Preparatory spent a week learning about coding and robotics and sharing their knowledge with others.
At Pridwin, coding and robotics have been compulsory for Grade 4–7 learners for the last few years. The robotics week at Pridwin Junior Prep began with Pridwin hosting an ICT cluster meeting on coding and robotics where they shared best practice with 25 Isasa (Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa) schools that attended.
Grades 0–3 boys had their technology lessons in the senior prep Steam (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) lab.
Grade 0s completed a paired programming session with their Grade 4 big brothers. Grade 4s taught Grade 0s to programme Sphero, while the Grade 4s got to show off their impressive Bee-Bot skills by teaching their brothers how to code Bee-Bots.
Grade 1s received an introduction to Bee-Bots and Blue-Bots and successfully drove their bots around robotics mats to rescue their Lego babies. To make this more challenging, boys build mazes for their bots to drive through.
Grade 2s got to build and programme science rovers using Lego Mindstorms, where they drove EV3s around the World Robotics Olympiad Competition mat. They had to plan, sequence, drive accurately and think critically.
Marketing manager at Pridwin Prep Demi-Rae le Roux said, “The boys had an absolute blast. They worked together, solved problems and developed their programming skills, all while learning through play.”
Le Roux further explained that it was not just the boys who got to play in Steam. The week ended with all the Junior Prep teachers getting hands-on training from Lego on the WeDo.
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