BHCS Robotics - Shepparton Christian College

By Allen Dickson (Head of Enrichment)

Shepparton is known for the Ardmonda Fruit Factory, the Motor Museum and now… a BHCS Robotics visit to Shepparton Christian College.

As a part of the BHCS Partnership Project’s mission to help grow smaller Christian Schools, a team of three teachers – Mr Reiher, Mr Torcasio and Mr Dickson – bundled their robotics gear into the Subaru and traveled up to this growing school of nearly 200 students.

Mr Torcasio worked with the Prep & 1/2 students, introducing them to sequencing using BeeBots and Dash robots. With a focus on helping the teachers find links with their Numeracy Curriculum, the teachers were blown away by how immersed the students were in uncovering more about their new little blue friends.

Mr Dickson introduced the Year 3/4 students to the wonderful world of Cubelets – small magnetic blocks that students combine in different ways to change the function of their robot. This form of ‘physical coding’ is only as limited as their imagination and Mr Dickson said that his favourite moment was seeing their teacher (Mrs Watson) sitting up on the desks with the students – she was as excited as a little kid.

Mr Reiher had the Lego Mindstorm robots battling it out for the Year 5/6 students. Programming their robots to use a light sensor to trigger a reverse and turn, these students actually forgot that they were learning – check out the videos and photos to see how thoroughly engaged they were.

In the afternoon our BHCS staff ran a Professional Development session with the SCC staff, introducing them to the basics of robotics in the classroom and giving them tips on how to embed this subject through Primary and Junior Secondary. The PD ended with the presentation of a starter pack of BeeBots and two Lego Wedo kits to help start SCC on their robotic journey.

Finally, our intrepid teachers also ran a Robotics Family Night where the parents and children of SCC could come and spend two hours ‘hands-on’ with the robots. The most satisfying part of this aspect of the visit was seeing the students ‘teaching’ their parents the skills they had learned earlier in the day.

It was a massive day but the rewards of seeing a ‘little brother’ school like SCC thoroughly engage with robotics and the thinking skills it develops was more than satisfying. But more importantly, initiatives like this further develop the relationships that we have within the Christian Schools movement – SCC feel like they are supported and a part of our larger Christian Schools family and we are living up to our mandate of being blessed to be a blessing.