2020 Update

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Due to the Coronavirus, different year groups cannot interact like they used to. Because of this, and the fact that Year 9 showed the most interest, Robotics has been running for only Year 9s this year - and instead of running our usual SUMO competition, we are re-running last year’s FLL: but with only the Robot Game and Robot Design. The majority of our FLL team in future years will be formed from the current year 9s, and it is important that they learn the skills required to compete at a high level in this competition, and continue the legacy of the club once the current FLL team members leave further education. Also due to COVID-19, we will unfortunately not be participating in the 2020/2021 FLL season. Our team members are in several different year groups, and the inability to mix with each other - along with the lack of funding (our school has redirected this to the COVID-19 response effort) - has required us to make this difficult decision, and we are all very disappointed. However, we hope to come back strong next season.

 

Regardless, we have continued to provide an ever-popular Robotics Club to year 9 students - the only year group allowed to attend. The students began by rebuilding the mission models - some of which had been damaged over the last few months - and have got them ready to be used on the City Shaper mat; and were then taught lessons on the fundamentals of robot structure structural integrity, motors, sensors and more. Following this, we had two sessions of practical investigation - in which they built the strongest LEGO structures they could, and then devised a set of fair tests to work out which team’s was the strongest. Our young engineers have been working hard to apply these skills, along with their own independent research and experimentation, to their robots, ensuring they are as efficient and reliable as possible. The six teams of five or six people have begun to make their rough robot structure, both with LEGO Digital Designer and simply playing with parts to see what works best. In January, they will continue to improve their robots, create attachments and begin some coding their robots.
Location: Reading School, Erleigh Rd, Reading RG1 5LW, UK

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