Unlocking Curious Minds’ funding for robotics

Students learn to programme their iPads to control their robots.

Friday 15 July, 2016

Unlocking Curious Minds’ funding for robotics

Two University of Waikato academics have welcomed the news that the government will add digital technologies to the New Zealand school curriculum by 2018 and, thanks to MBIE funding, they’ve already started ramping up digital capability in low decile primary schools and kura in the Waikato region.

Associate Professor Garry Falloon from Waikato’s Faculty of Education and computer scientist Nilesh Kanji have been awarded $30,000 as part of MBIE’s Unlocking Curious Minds Contestable Funding and are going into schools to run ‘Roboshops’, teaching children between 7 and 12 years the basics of coding and applying that to control robots spheros, droids, and ollies.

There are eight schools involved in the programme that involves five two-hour workshops. Dr Falloon says keeping sessions in-house is the best way to get good results. “With all the regulations required to take children off-site, it seemed a better idea to go to the schools during school-hours.

“The workshops build on each other and just watching the children learn is amazing. Some of these children don’t have ready access to computers or tablets at home, but the speed with which they pick up concepts and string them together is impressive.”

Mr Kanji says that in the first session the students scarcely touch their iPads, but instead, through paper-based coding games they learn basic computer concepts, including simulating a fax machine, where the number patterns form a recognisable picture.

“Then on iPads we cover logical thinking by using coding-based games such as Cargo-Bot and Lightbot, where the students guide a droid to solve puzzles,” Mr Kanji says. “Then they work with Pyonkee, which is an iPad version of Scratch, which allows them to visually code and change the values of things, just by using the drag and drop function. Then we build on that, using an app called Tickle to develop procedures that will make the actual robots move around.”

Dr Falloon says coding actual devices leads to new challenges, such as controlling speed, tackling physical obstacles and changing direction. It can involve creating repeated sequences and working with loads of variables. “The students end up extending themselves by solving quite complex code problems to make their device do as they want it to.”

Dr Falloon hopes this initial programme will be a “scoping exercise” that he and Mr Kanji will be able to refine and extend to more schools. “We’ve been inundated with requests to go into more schools. People talk about the decile ‘digital divide’, but I think there’s a worrying divide developing between urban and rural schools and their access to programmes such as this. We’ve included Morrinsville and Te Awamutu schools in this initial programme, but there are so many more schools outside Hamilton that would like to be taking part.”

The university staff insist there are teachers present in the Roboshops. “It’s important teachers are included because we need to develop capability within the schools to enhance sustainability. Ultimately, we aren’t able to run this programme indefinitely. We need to grow interest and ability in the teachers, as well as the children and their parents,” says Dr Falloon.

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