Last week the Year 4 and 5 pupils took part in their Computing Focus Days. This year, these days were focussed on Computer Science. Pupils explored careers within this strand of computing and were given the opportunity to apply skills they have learned from computing lessons to code Microbits, VEX robots and either Sphero Indi's (Y4) or Crumble buggies (Y5).
VEX robotics workshop-
In this workshop, Year 4 and 5 used VEX Code Go on their digital device to code their robot to move through a maze successfully. This involved composing algorithms and debugging when we came across problems in our code. This workshop involved an element of maths when pupils were using angles, turns and compass points to map out their code for the maze.
Microbits workshop-
A microbit is essentially a minicomputer and pupils were coding these with varied support to run a program. When coded successfully, pupils ran a program which mimicked the eruption of a volcano- linking closely with their learning of volcanos in Geography from Year 4.
Sphero Indi (Year 4)-
This workshop was run by Mark Lloyd. The pupils explored using the mini robots across different surfaces of varying friction. Pupils completed an investigation into which coloured surface had the most/least friction. This session incorporated learning from their Autumn 1 science unit of friction linked to Wheels in Motion.
Crumble buggies (Year 5)-
In this workshop with Mark Lloyd, pupils built a robot buggy with motors controlled by a crumble robotics board. This motor buggy was controlled with their coded programs. Pupils learned:
-How to connect DC motors to a Crumble controller board.
-How to coordinate two motors to control direction.
-How to code a preprogrammed buggy ‘journey’.
This workshop linked closely to their previous year's science unit of electricity and creating circuits.
