Pupils compete at Ayrshire College’s FIRST® LEGO® League
School pupils from across Ayrshire and the surrounding areas took part in a LEGO® based competition at Ayrshire College’s Kilmarnock Campus on Friday 20 January 2023.
7 schools competed in the FIRST® LEGO® League regional competition, with the overall winners – Cedars School from Greenock - moving onto the national finals, to be held in Harrogate on 22 April 2023.
Pupils from Robert Burns Academy, Stewarton Academy, Wellington School, Cedars School, St Andrew’s Academy, Shawlands Academy and Williamwood High School entered the finals at the Kilmarnock Campus. The pupils were assisted on the day by volunteers from Ayrshire College, as well as leading engineering employers GE Aviation Services - Caledonian.
The teams designed and coded their own LEGO® robots to complete a series of games in which they tried to score as many points as possible. Points were awarded based on how successfully the robot completed a challenge as a result of how the pupils had programmed them. If the pupils needed to intervene and re-adjust the robot’s movements, points were deducted from their team.
LEGO trophies were awarded to the winning teams of each category: Robot Game (winners: Cedars School), Innovation Project (winners: Williamwood High School), Core Values (winners: Robert Burns Academy), and Robot Design (winners: Shawlands Academy), before the overall winner was announced.
The competition for 9-16 year olds is organised by IET in partnership with their delivery partners Energy Skills Partnership (ESP) and Ayrshire College.
Wendy Findlay, Programme Manager for STEM at ESP, said: “This event is a fantastic opportunity for these young people to develop their teamwork skills and resilience. In working with the LEGO® kits, this is really STEM by stealth. It’s also a great opportunity for the pupils to speak to people from Ayrshire College, get used to the college environment, and network with engineering apprentices.”
Ged Freel, Head of Learning and Skills – Business and Computing at Ayrshire College, said: “This event is always a fantastic showcase of how fun and exciting engineering and computing can be.
“There was great enthusiasm shown by every school involved in Ayrshire’s FIRST® LEGO® League competition, and hopefully this event will help to encourage the pupils to think about pursuing a career in technology.”
A representative from Cedars School said: “We’ve really enjoyed it, we didn’t expect to win! A big thank you to everyone involved in organising this event. It’s been amazing.”
26 January 2023
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