Grade 9 students participating in a robotics workshop at Dr. Roy Wilson Learning Centre on Friday held in collaboration with Best Buy's Geek Squad Academy. Dozens of students took part in the tech educational workshop that provided hands-on experience on how to code a robot to move through a maze.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
Grade 9 student Addison Drever wants to become a marine biologist and discover behaviours like the migration patterns in sea life and says she has a passion for anatomy in organisms.
“Science is my favourite part in school,” said Drever. “I find it very interesting and I want my job in the future to be based around science, I just love science so much.”
And she’s not alone.
“We all love technology, everyone around here does,” said Grade 9 student Caleb DeWolfe.
That’s why more than a dozen of fellow students at Dr. Roy Wilson Learning Centre spend their Professional Development days inside the classroom, learning about robotics and learning hands-on coding during a STEM education workshop taught by local experts.
A handful of volunteers from Best Buy’s Geek Squad spend their morning hosting the hands-on robotics academy aimed at engaging students with technology. Best Buy also provides all the student learning materials, including the robots.
“It’s kind of Best Buy’s way to get involved with our communities, to really engage customers and everyone in a practical kind of sense,” said Matthew Maillet, local store manager. “One thing I really like about our robotics course specifically is that it teaches them a lot about critical thinking, problem solving and really just how things can connect together.”
The academy challenges students to solve algorithms with growing complexities and teaches hands-on programming skills needed to guide a small robot – similar to a robot vacuum cleaner – through several life-sized mazes mapped out on the floor.
Dave Van Leeuwen, lead teacher of education of technology with the Medicine Hat Public School Division, says the workshop challenges students to learn problem-solving skills directly through the trial and error of programming a robot to reach the end of the maze.
Van Leeuwen says the workshop is in essence a “real-life video game.”
“What they’re doing is they’re putting the directions into the iPads of what it’s going to do in terms of how far it’s going to move and then which way it’s going to turn and go forward,” explained Van Leeuwen. “So it’s essentially like a real-life video game where they’re putting in directions and then they’re watching what it’s doing to see if they win or succeed or not.
“So they’re taking it one step at a time, putting in those directions and then seeing what the robot does and kind of slowly advancing.”
At times, this could prove difficult. Drever says it’s the process of ups and downs.
“You have some really good pathways that your robot can follow and then you have some difficult times where you’re like, ‘OK, which angle does this need to be to make sure it actually gets to the finish line?'”
“Video games have kind of been a spark in my technology interest and I’d really like to do stuff that involves video games and technology in a future job,” said DeWolfe.
Grade 9 student Henry Allens says he plans to attend NAIT following graduation to pursue a career that involves coding and video game design.
“That’s what I would love to do in the future, so this will help me code and stuff,” said Allens.
Grade 7 student Aubury Smith says she was inspired to attend the workshop because of her love for science.
“I like learning about the parts of the robot and stuff,” said Smith.
The electronic retail chain began its Geek Squad Academy outreach program 10 years ago, allowing store members to volunteer time to offer hands-on tech workshops to schools and non-profit organizations across Canada.
