Middle Years Students Visit Yarra Ranges Tech
Year 8 Excursion
On Friday 30 August and Friday 20 September, the Year 8 cohort set out on a fun-filled excursion to Yarra Ranges Tech School. Here, we were given the opportunity to participate in two of their innovative programs. This included the AI Art/VR experience, and the Insectoid program.
In the AI Art and VR session, students explored the amazing intricacies of the virtual world, while simultaneously being educated on the real-life application of AI and VR. We utilised Leonardo.AI to bring our imagination to life in the form of art. Afterwards, we used Open Brush to design 3D cupcakes that we filled with unique surprises, ranging from sparkly swirls to cartoon creatures.
Personally, we were extremely challenged with our time management skills. There was simply so many functions in the VR and AI programs, that we did not get to try out! We were so engrossed in what we were doing that we hardly wanted to go for a break. Our favourite part was viewing all our peers’ artworks and voting for the ones we liked through an online forum. It was so interesting to see what we could come up with!
In our Insectoid Program, we experimented with a small bio-mimicking insectoid, Ringo, that we programmed to navigate through a course automatically. We even got to customise its appearance with flashing lights and fun designs.
Adjusting our insectoids’ coding to manoeuvre the track was rather difficult but most of us succeeded in the end. From this exercise, we believe that some people do not deserve drivers’ licences, the Ringoes were zooming everywhere! The day ended with all of us pitting our robots against each other in a neck-breaking race to see who could make it through the maze without intervention and as quickly as possible.
Overall, this was an amazing experience, and we are extremely grateful to the staff at Yarra Ranges Tech School for accommodating us. They were very helpful and patient, and they assisted us with our many, many problems. We also want to thank all teachers who accompanied us; Ms Choo, Mr Govender, Mrs Law, Mr Mancev, Mrs Salomons, Mrs Silva and Mr Zhou. Finally, a massive thank you to Mrs Govender, the organiser, who responded to all our questions and ideas with so much enthusiasm.
Ellie Kang (8.5), Celina Weir-Marshall (8.5), Nicole Moses (8.5)
Year 7 – 9 GATE Program
On Friday 13 September, the Year 7-9 students in the Gifted and Talented program (GATE) visited the Yarra Ranges Tech School to learn more about Wearable Technology. This program was immensely fun and allowed us to delve deeper into the world of STEM.
Our day began with a brief introduction of our challenge; to create a prototype for wearable technology. We teamed up in groups of twos and threes to brainstorm; who might need these devices? How might the technology help them with their jobs? Ideas cascaded out, some including a wristband that could help lifeguards, nametags that could detect hazardous waste, glasses with inbuilt AI, and a very useful productivity managing watch.
Armed with these ideas, our groups set to work, designing the devices’ appearances. A few sketches were made on paper before we used TinkerCad to invent our very own 3D printed models! This was our favourite part, being able to watch our 3D inventions take shape. Watching the printer move to-and-fro was utterly fascinating!
Next up, we used Little Bits, electronic parts, to code functions that our wearable technology might have- would our nametags beep when hazardous waste is detected? Would our watches vibrate when dangerous animals are nearby? This was definitely the hardest task of the day as coding and fiddling around with different bits and pieces proved to be a tough challenge.
At last came the grand finale where we pitched our prototypes to the class. It was so cool to see all the concepts come to life. Hearing about the thought process, seeing the 3D model and the Little Bits creation, though some did not turn out as planned, was eye-opening. One group even managed to 3D print a pair of glasses!
Finally, we would like to thank the amazing staff at Yarra Ranges Tech School who helped us throughout the course of the day. They were overflowing with patience and passion. And of course, another big thank you to Mr Mancev, who accompanied us on the day, and Mrs Govender, who organised this brilliant learning opportunity, for joining in on the fun and responding to our many, many ideas with such enthusiasm.
Celina Weir-Marshall (8.5), Ellie Kang (8.5) and Nicole Moses (8.5)