'Younger kids can be coders, programmers' – Wagga students showcase robotics for Public Education Week

To mark Public Education Week, some of the brightest minds showcased the future of robotics through LEGO creations.

The 2024 Public Education Week theme, ”Proud to Belong”, celebrates diversity and inclusiveness in public education with displays, performances and open classrooms.

Students from Ashmont Public School, Kooringal Public, Sturt Public, Uranquinty Public, Red Hill Public, Wagga Wagga Public, Kooringal High, Lake Albert Public, South Wagga Public, Forest Hill Public and Wagga Wagga High will showcase their work at Wagga Wagga Marketplace this week.

The students’ performances include Aboriginal dance groups, school choirs and bands, chess, a robotics display, square dancing, and public school projects and program displays.

About 120 year 5 and 6 Sturt Public students participate in a full term of LEGO robotics during their science and technology lessons yearly.

The students’ latest challenge was to capture a moment in time across different eras and disciplines.

Alex Goodwin, Amelia Tai and Kai Milman spent three to five weeks creating The Asteroid Miner.

“We have created a robot designed to mine asteroids that have metal that could be valuable, like iron, and in huge quantities,” Alex explained. “We have four motors, which is part of a three-step process of processing the iron.

“The first motor drives a crushing and pummelling mechanism designed to move a big, heavy block of steel up and down to break the iron.

“Then, an electromagnetic crane lifts the iron and drops it onto a ramp, which brings it into a chamber. Two motors break it down and drop it into a chamber for collection, powered by solar panels during the process.”

Alex said the team had put enormous effort into bringing their vision to life.

“We have some very finicky little pieces that have to be coordinated precisely to go up and down at the same time to work and not break,” he said.

Amelia is proud of what her team has achieved with the creation.

“It is unique, and it might help and benefit people in the future,” she said.

“We had decided ‘our moment in time’ and ended up choosing the future because we thought it was a broad subject.

“We chose between the marine environment and space … we brainstormed and decided if we tried to create an asteroid miner, it would be great.”

Amelia hopes the biggest takeaway from the project is for people to recognise that young students are capable of driving future changes.

The Alla Turcas, by Hossameldin Elmosalamy, Annabel McCabe and Charlie, is a robot based on the piano. The students spent the past two terms working on their project.

“Our robot is a piano that represents when Mozart played his first piano at the age of three,” Hossameldin said.

“We named it after his first piano, the fortepiano.

“And how our robot works is that we have a colour sensor. Our code says that when it senses a specific colour, it plays a beat for a specific amount of time, and it also plays different tunes.”

Annabel said robotics was a vital topic for younger students.

“It’s a good way to learn more about coding and programming,” she said.

“It’s good that you can also involve schools in this because it’s a really fun project.

“What people can take away is how younger kids can also be coders and programmers just as adults can.”

Wagga Wagga’s director of educational leadership Jenene McGrath says Public Education Week is important.

“It’s a chance to celebrate all that is great with public education,” Ms McGrath said.

“We’ve got 22 public education schools in Wagga, and they have their displays around the Marketplace and also have things in their school.”

Ms McGrath said Sturt Public School had been working in robotics for a long time.

“They were probably one of the first schools that picked it up and are quite innovative in the work they do,” she said.

“These students have been working in robotics for a number of years and are very clever.”

Public Education Week performances, displays and projects will continue until this Friday (9 August) at the Wagga Wagga Marketplace from 11:30 am to 1 pm.