ROBOCUP LEGO MINDSTORMS

About RoboCup

RoboCup provides groups of dedicated students to take part at regional, national and international levels in ‘soccer, dance and rescue’ robotic making and programming competitions. The competitions encourage pupil interest in physics, design technology and ICT and raise pupil’s learning and career expectations. The tasks are excellent for developing problem solving and collaborative teamwork. It is usually year 8 and/or 9 pupils who take part, though we are piloting the competition with a group of year 6 pupils.

For more information on the competition go to the website www.robocup.org.

Kit loan

The CLC supports schools with the loan of Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kits and tuition to teachers and pupils to enable groups of interested pupils to enter the Wirral, National and International RoboCup Finals held annually. This is our fourth year of support.

Taking part 2010-2011

To take part in the 2010-2011 RoboCup finals email Michael McManus at the Discovery CLC michaelmcmanus@discoveryclc.co.uk.

History

To date Prenton High Schools for Girls have progressed through the National Finals to successfully compete in the International Finals in San Francisco (USA). Suzhou (China) and Graz (Austria). St Anselm’s College, a new entrant to the competition, also attended the International Finals in Graz.

This year, 2010, the National Finals took place in Prenton High Schools for Girls, organised by John O’Neill, the National President. The International Finals are in Singapore.

The project is now in its fourth year. Previous participating secondary schools are Prenton High School for Girls (John O’Neill – who is now the National President of the RoboCup Association), St Anselm’s Grammar School for Boys (Paul Davies), Calday Grange (Ash Rahman), and Mosslands (Pete Ellerington). This year Jackie Ward (Our Lady of Pity Primary School) is exploring the feasibility of Year 6 pupils competing with the older secondary pupils in the National Finals. If successful, this could open the way for more primary schools to participate.
There are physics, design technology and gifted and talented benefits to schools taking up the competition with lasting benefits to pupils who take on trips of a lifetime.

A combination of strong leadership support and key teacher enthusiasm has been crucial to success. However, the ‘rarely cover’ scheme is making it increasingly difficult for secondary pupils to visit the CLC. We are currently looking at ways of providing school based tutor support.