Hastings Secondary College was a buzz of excitement on Friday, March 2 as word spread the campuses had received a $50,000 grant to go towards enhancing students’ digital literacy skills in robotics.
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Students are at the forefront robotics developing new skills to program robots to compete on the world stage.
Kylee Owen, executive principal at Hastings Secondary College, said the grants will help both students and teachers to access the tools to enhance their digital literacy.
“We are very excited about the opportunities that will now be possible as a result of this grant and look forward to developing a workforce equipped to take advantage of Australia’s future opportunities,” Ms Owen said.
“The money from this grant will go specifically towards the establishment of 'RoboHubs' at each campus, expanding our robotics program to include more students and will transform how the students in STEM subjects can learn.
“The funds will also enhance teacher professional learning and explicit teaching strategies to inspire staff and students.”
Ms Owen said the schools have a proud and strong tradition of embracing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subject areas and is excited to see where the students will take the resources the grant will purchase.
“Our robotics program is building students’ critical learning capabilities which will prepare them for a successful future,” she said.
“When we applied for the Digital Literacy Schools Grant we heard that over 1700 other applications were received and we weren’t sure if we would be successful, but I am proud to say that we were awarded the highest amount on offer which was $50,000 which will go a long way to help us continue our robotics program.”
Member of the robotics team and year eight student at Westport campus, Luke Aguilar, said the robotics team made up of students from both campuses is ready for a great 2018.
“The team was able to go and compete in Houston in the United States and at the moment we are practicing before heading to Sydney to compete in the South Pacific Regional competition on March 11,” Luke said.
“As part of being on the robotics team we can be a part of the actual making of the robot, figuring out the mechanics of what we want to build or in the marketing division because the robot business model is all about being self sufficient.
“So we need to come up with sponsorship so we can buy the parts we need to build what we want.”
Luke said each year at the South Pacific Regional competition the challenges are different so coming up with a new robot each year is vital.
“We had to make a new robot for the competition from scratch and we are only allowed to have six weeks to make it, so the team worked for the last three weeks of the school holidays and during the first three weeks of term one.
“It is important that when we go and compete we know what we are doing so we actually made two robots one for the competition and one to practice with.”
Hannah Stewart, also in year eight but at the Port Macquarie campus, said more and more girls are becoming interested in the robotics team.
“I would say that girls love robotics just as much as boys and at school we are all given the chance to be on the robotics team,” Hannah said.
“You have to be passionate about it and I absolutely love being on the team because I have always been interested in STEM subjects.
“My role on the team is in the statistics division which means at competitions I look at all the other teams and see which ones we might want to make an alliance with which is very important as the competitions are not just about winning but also about working together.”
