By Jonty Ralphsmith
Five Harkaway Primary School students have represented their school on the national stage at the national robotics championships at Adelaide.
The annual event conducted by VexIQ took place on the weekend of 4-6 March with the students from Harkaway split into two teams.
Along with their families, the students were accompanied by principal Leigh Johnson, an advocate for STEM learning and a judge at the event.
Sam, Lenny (a Harkaway alumni), Caleb, Angel and Ava were the students who represented the school but there are many more on the team not able to attend the event.
“The critical thing is that schools are working with, not against, each other,” Mr Johnson highlighted.
Teams are randomly paired together on the day, requiring them to co-operate and combine their robotics nous to accumulate the maximum number of points possible.
Strategy was a major learning from the event.
Prior to the event, the Harkaway students spent as long as possible in the robotics room honing their craft.
Caleb said he was always running up to find Mr Johnson so the principal could unlock the door to the robotics room to enable him and his friends to build, design, collaborate and have fun.
For Sam and Angel, the nationals camp crucially nurtured relationships as both are new to school.
The program has changed Caleb and Angel’s paths, with Caleb, a year five student, keen to work in robotics and Angel keen to go to university in Japan.
Although neither Harkaway side finished on the podium in the 21-team event, the team had success at a signature event in Whittlesea in 2021 and are eagerly awaiting their next competition – worlds in May.
The competition will see Harkaway on the global stage, translating their learnings such as strategy, co-operation and design from nationals and implementing coding into their practices.
The students are looking forward to competing and have plans to make their robot more durable, efficient and agile having seen alternative designs during their time in Adelaide.
“I’ve got an idea for a whole new robot that is thinner and longer and higher than the current bot,” Caleb exclaimed.
