STUDENTS from Mullion Creek Public School put some sting into a statewide robot competition last week when they won the Robo Cup Primary Dance state competition.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On the back of the state division win, the students from the combined year 3, 4, 5 and 6 class will have the chance to go on to contest the national competition in Adelaide.
The students, who called themselves The Bee Team, won the competition with a performance called Save our Bees, which was about raising awareness of the importance of bees and the threats to their future.
The Bee Team also won the regional competition this year while another team from the school won the regional competition last year and came third in the state competition.
Under the guidance of teacher Sharon Cloete they designed and built robot bees and programmed them to dance and draw flowers for the competition.
“It’s multi-level learning, it’s literary, it’s science, it’s technology and it’s maths,” Mrs Cloete said.
“It’s the first time we’ve won state and it’s only the second year we’ve been doing robots at school.”
Mrs Cloete said there were initially 18 students involved in coming up with designs and dance steps using five robots, but only seven could take part in the competition.
She said they chose the bee theme after watching a documentary on society’s dependence on bees for pollination and about how worldwide bee numbers were declining.
As well as building the robots and programming the dance moves, the children designed and made the stage and backdrop, and a design created by student Caitlyn White was made into their team shirts.
The school also entered two robots in the robot rescue category.
The school will look at funding so the students can take part in the national competition.
Donations are welcome and can be made to the school by phoning 6365 8382.
tanya.marschke@fairfaxmedia.com.au
