LEGO Technology and Robotics

MARK LOCKETT

Head of LEGO Technology and

Robotics

The LEGO name is made from the first two letters of the Danish words LEG GODT, meaning “play well”. This is very appropriate as the 2014 Prep and Senior School LEGO Robotics and Technology program continued to develop and saw many students “playing well” in their groups.

The addition of a new Reception year level course on Structures and the revamped Year 9 Robotics Course, which added the use of the metal MATRIX construction system, further developed Prep and Senior School students’ creativity and engineering skills.

In 2015, The Southport School will introduce a Year 10 Engineering Technology course, which will further expand into the Years 11 and 12 OP Engineering Technology course in 2016/17. Engineering Technology will provide a direct pathway for students who have an interest in Robotics and Engineering into university courses. The afterschool Junior Robotics Club for Years 3 and 4 students developed into a four-term activity this year with help from Mr Lockett, Miss Lawless and Mrs Thomas. This activity utilises the LEGO Wedo Robotic construction set and programming language and is held in the Prep School. Over 30 boys from Year 5 to Year 11 joined the afterschool Young Engineers’ Society held in the ‘state of the art’ Robotics Laboratory in the Senior School. Mr Jason Green, a TSS parent, continued his position of resident LEGO guru and FIRST LEGO League team coach.

RECEPTION J LEARNING ABOUT COOPERATION AND BUILDING TOGETHER Two Prep School teams entered into the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League competition. The event, held at ‘The Cube’ at QUT, challenges students to design and program a robot to solve different missions and to also present their design ideas on a real world topic. Both teams were praised for their ingenuity and ‘out of the box’ thinking.

CALUM LOCKETT RECEIVES THE ‘BEST PRESENTATION’ AWARD.

The Senior School students entered into many competitions and challenges in 2014. Three students from Year 9, Jess Rutherford, Kobi Rutherford and Andrew Geraghty, entered into the Gold Coast Mayor’s Technology Challenge held at Bond University and were placed third with their Beach Patrol Robot Design. Eight students from Years 7, 8 and 9 entered into the G20 Summit on a Clean Environment Technology Challenge held at Griffith University. The Year 9 team’s Solar Tracking Station came second overall, the Year 8 team won the ‘Technology Excellence’ award with their Beach Cleaning Robot and the Year 7 Team won the ‘Best Presentation’ Award with their Green Energy Home. The Year 9 Robotics Class entered three robots in the Queensland FIRST Tech Challenge. These robots are built from ‘MATRIX’ parts, which is a metal construction kit and is the next step up from the LEGO Robotics sets. The robots use 12-volt motors and servos to drive and power the robots. The teams found the challenge very engaging and were happy with their overall positions of second and third places.