Digital Tech at BEPS

Micro-Bit Club

In Micro-Bit Club students honed their coding skills by creating projects based on their interests. They programmed their Micro-Bits to make projects such as games, light displays and even lightsabers! 

Abhishaey: Micro-Bit was really fun and an amazing experience for me. My friends and I managed to make a game based on laser tag. It will always be one of the best times of the week for me.

Khoi: During Micro-Bit Club, I made lots of things such as a Flappy Bird style game

Prabashitha: I helped work on the lightsaber. I mostly contributed to the hardware. I would say it's between a failure and success. It didn’t really look up to our expectations but it still resembled a lightsaber, which was kind of what we wanted.  

Huy: I recreated wifi... but failed because it was not connecting. After trying to install the extension and trying to make other connections work, the micro-bit refused to connect.

Nandan: Aadhitya and I installed some games onto the Micro-bits and turned them into game and watches. We also tried making a Micro-bit plane.

Aadhitya: Nandan and I made a lot of fun tiny games on the Micro-bit screen. I tried to make Space Invaders and Tetris. 

Anay: Micro-Bit Club was amazing because it was fun to use microcontrollers and create new products. 

Akein: Micro-Bit club was very interesting because you can build whatever you want with a Micro-bit. I built a chat system to talk with others that I finished. Then I created a basic display that can display stuff.

Robotics Club

Some students from Year 5 and 6 enthusiastically joined the Expert EV3 and Spike Robotics club, dedicating their Thursday lunchtimes to crafting robots. Armed with Lego Mindstorm and Spike Prime kits, they meticulously assembled their robotic creations and programmed them to perform specific tasks. 

They participated in 3 competitions this year with the first focussing on soccer, requiring the students to collaborate and construct two robots for each team. The objective was clear: defend the goal and engage in a spirited pursuit of the infrared ball across an improvised soccer field.

Burwood East saw the participation of three teams in the competition, each engaging in a minimum of five games. Each game featured two five-minute halves, with teams switching sides at halftime. The team scoring the most goals after both halves emerged victorious, with goals counted when the ball struck the back of the net. The event proved to be a delightful experience for all the students, witnessing their robots spring into action. Despite occasional technical glitches, the students revelled in the overall success of their hard work.

The second competition saw one of our teams have a go at the 'On Stage' option where they had the challenge of conceiving, constructing, and programming robots for live performances. These performances may take the form of a synchronised dance set to the rhythm of music or an engaging theatrical presentation. Teams are evaluated based on both their on-stage performance and their technical interview, which includes a comprehensive technical description paper. Our team brought a Star Wars themed performance for the first ever BEPS On Stage production.

In the final competition one of our teams had a go at Riley Rover where participants guide their robots along a meandering path marked on a series of tiles, ultimately leading to a designated rescue area. This journey is far from straightforward, as the robots may encounter various challenges such as obstacles, bridges and tempting shortcuts, testing the skills of even the most daring programmers. Navigating a randomly chosen route, the robot eventually reaches a green-coloured zone, symbolising a chemical spill. Against the ticking clock, the robot's task is to locate 'the victim' within the spill and safely move them out.

RoboCup, the robotics competition tailored for young students, embodies a collaborative ethos and fosters essential STEM skills that transcend various school subjects. The competition not only emphasises technical proficiency but also promotes social development by instilling values such as sportsmanship, sharing, teamwork, appreciation for diversity, cooperation and organisational skills.

Congratulations to all the students who were part of the expert robotics team, showcasing their dedication and skills at the RoboCup event!

Lego Spike 2023

Inventing stuff… Fixing stuff… Sharing ideas… Expanding robotic skills…

These are just some of the things that the Year 3 and 4 students at BEPS have done in Lego Spike Club this year.

When using the Lego Spike Prime app, students have completed activities that have allowed them to invent and expand their understanding of STEM, engineering and computer science.

After developing skills with the My Blocks system, students became confident enough to build and develop their own organised programs.

They have enjoyed spending their time on Tuesday during recess being inventors and getting creative!

Josephine says: “It’s a good place to learn how to create stuff with Lego.”

Xinwei says: “It’s a good place to learn how to design and develop your creativity for programming. You need these skills for the future!”

Scarlett says: “Lego Spike is amazing because you can create anything you want and use your creativity.”

Ethan says: “I think of it as a place where you design things. It’s really fun!”

Sophia says: “You can build anything so when you don’t feel like building a normal robot, you can let your imagination flow.”

Sphero Club

This year, students from Year 1 to 4 had the opportunity to join Sphero Club during lunchtime to explore the limitless possibilities of Sphero, an app-enabled robotic ball. It is the first ‘robotic ball’ device that can be controlled with a tilt, touch or swing from a smartphone or tablet. 

Sphero is a cool, programmable robot that sparks curiosities about robotics, and allows students to learn, create and invent through coding. The Sphero Club is a fantastic opportunity for students to learn coding, problem solving and teamwork while having fun with this innovative and interactive robotic technology. Through hands-on experiences, students learnt from navigating mazes, creating games with codes to participating in mini-robotic challenges.