A group of sixth grade students at St. Francis of Assisi School put their programming skills to the test Tuesday by participating in a robotics competition.
The students, who were in teams of two and gathered at the school’s cafeteria, each took turns placing a robot on the floor to have it run through an obstacle course.
The robot had to complete a set of actions on the obstacle course — such as moving “snow” (represented by cotton balls) or toy cars or touching a toy train to activate it.
A robot moves snow, represented by cotton balls, off an obstacle course during a robotics competition Tuesday at St. Francis of Assisi School. (Gerard Edic)
Christina Meriwether, a 4-H and youth extension agent through Mississippi State University’s Extension Service, who organized the competition, watched each team’s robot and gave points to each pair of students based on how well their robots completed the tasks.
A group of fifth grade students at St. Francis programmed robots and ran them through an obstacle course last week.
Since mid-March, Meriwether had worked with the fifth and sixth graders at St. Francis, teaching them how to code. “They’re learning the science of computer science,” she said.
The robotics competition last week and Tuesday was a culmination of what the students had spent the past weeks learning.
To make the robots move, the students determine factors such as the speed and angles the robots needed to take and then program those actions into an app on an iPad, which controls the robots’ actions.
In addition to programming, students also are learning teamwork, an important skill for the real world, Meriwether said.
After the robotics competition Tuesday, Meriwether held an awards ceremony for the sixth grade students.
“I am so proud of you all,” she said. “You all worked so hard.”
Each of the five teams of sixth graders received a certificate, a ribbon and a prize.
Remiah King and Chloe Sewell took first place. Both students got as a prize a small robot that can be controlled with a mobile app.
“I thought it was really fun,” Remiah said.
This was her first time programming, but she hopes it won’t be her last. She said she hopes to be a coder when she grows up.
“Programming made me feel a lot smarter,” she said.
“I like when you get to know all the commands and the movements to see how it works.”
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
