We were pleased to award The Reach Free School a STEM Minor Award for the majority of 3 LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 Core Robotics Sets. Annalise Armitage (Science Teacher) explained this exciting project:
“This is an in-house project that spans over 12 1.5 hour lessons and it allows pupils to build, programme and navigate their very own robot through some unique robot games and puzzles. The challenge that they are set is based on real world problems. This year's one is around being active.”
The pupils will enter the First Lego League Challenge competition which…
“…will not only help inspire pupils in STEM as it shows them how the theory they are taught in lessons can be applied not only practically, but also to real life situations, but it also helps the pupils socially and emotionally.
As this project is run over several weeks, the pupils have to show and develop resilience, teamwork, innovation, problem solving and inclusion of others.”
As well as the depth of learning benefit, we always look for the number and range of pupils who will be helped by a project and how long those benefits will last. Annalise covered these points well:
“The project can be rolled out for all abilities and has been adapted for all to take part. I think this would be a fantastic opportunity for pupils to engage with each other, but also inspire them to dive deeper into STEM.
Although for this year it will only be delivered to a small group due to current times, once we have the equipment and resources, this is a project that can be delivered several times across several year groups, year on year within minimal additional cost.”