STEM Days

STEM Days - a whole day of robotics activities, taking the students from first principles to a competitive robot

Level: Beginner/intermediate, For Key Stage 2-5 (Scotland P4-S6), with the content pitched accordingly

Based around the RoboStarter concepts and WRO Learn

Numbers of students: 6-30

Time required: approximately 5 hours, allowing time for the registration of students, breaks and movement around the school

Location: ideally a large room such as a drama studio, PE hall or school hall

Cost: £500

As a non-profit, STEMpura seeks funding to reduce the cost to schools and colleges. Please ask to see if we have subsidies available

Learning outcomes:

At the end of the day the students should have been introduced to the following concepts, and have sufficient knowledge to then be able to commence developing a basic entry for a WRO Regional Tournament. If sufficiently capable they may well have made enough progress for an entry:

·       Understand some ways in which industry uses robots

·       Understand what is meant by a robot

·       Know the key components of a robot and what they contribute to the robot function e.g. sensors, actuators etc.

·       Know some basic ways of coding a robot/robotic components

·       Have an introduction to what roboticists (and engineers) do

·       Consider how robots can be used to

o   Work alongside humans to

§  improve outcomes

§  reduce risk to humans

o   Do things that humans can’t or in conditions where humans can’t operate

o   To do things more consistently and accurately than humans or remove repetitive tasks

o   Do things for which there is insufficient human resources

·       Have a go at putting together the components to make the robot do something

·       Have a go at coding the components to make the robot do something

·       Adjust the parameters of the coding to alter how the robot behaves

·       Identify issues with the robot and make corrections

·       Develop iterations of the design and components to improve performance

·       Understand that robots don’t always behave as anticipated due to user instruction, environmental factors or component condition