This week, Year 5 were very lucky to be invited to take part in an exciting STEM workshop all about robotics.
We met with the Subnautics Robotics Team from St Marylebone, who were absolutely brilliant. They began by introducing themselves and explaining the amazing work they do within their team. Each year, they design and build robots to compete against other teams, testing which designs perform the best. As well as being fantastic engineers, they are also passionate advocates for ocean wildlife and campaigners for plastic free oceans. The team even brought along some impressive posters showing the robots they have built.
Our challenge was to design and create prototypes out of LEGO for our own robots with specific functions. For example, some of us built robots that could stack blocks into a tower, while others designed robots to make a bed or even walk a dog. The dog walking team cleverly decided to market their robot towards older people and came up with a unique selling point to match.
Throughout the session, we used prompt cards to think carefully about our designs:
• Would our robot be controlled by a human or automatic?
• How would it detect objects?
• What safety features might it need?
We then created mind maps to summarise our designs, explaining our choices and how each part of the robot would function, such as “a sensor that detects obstacles”. Finally, we presented our ideas to the group and shared what we had learned.
We had such a brilliant time and learned so much about how robotics combines creativity, problem solving and science. A huge thank you to the Subnautics Robotics Team from St. Marylebone and Marylebone Library for hosting us, and of course to the parents who came along to support us. We hope you had as much fun as we did!
If you could build your own robot for any purpose, what would it do and how would it help people?
