Schools in the Inishowen area will have the unique chance to bring robots into the classroom soon as part of a new tech competition. Robots valued at over €50,000 will be introduced to local schools under the new collaboration.
Scoil Mhuire Buncrana are partnering with Cork IT, in a SFI funded project offering a free robot to every primary and secondary school in Inishowen who participates in the regional VEX Robotics Competition.
Rosaleen Grant, Principal of Scoil Mhuire Buncrana, said “We are very excited to be collaborating with LYIT and Cork IT in launching the VEX Robotics Competition in Inishowen. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) industries are where so many of our pupils will find employment in the future and we want to ensure they have multiple learning experiences across the STEM subjects.”
Scoil Mhuire Buncrana students launch the VEX Robotics Competition
Eoin Leonard, Robotics, Technology and Engineering teacher at Scoil Mhuire stated that “When we went to the information session hosted by Cork IT we were very enthusiastic to be involved in the competition. We thought we could go a step further and collaborate with Cork IT in offering a robot to every school in Inishowen. This competition provides a forum for pupils to be engaged, educated and having fun across many disciplines.”
Robots in Scoil Mhuire Buncrana
Professor Hugh McGlynn from Cork IT said that LYIT are partnering with Cork IT to hold a regional competition in the North West. There are two categories in the robotics competitions one for primary schools, VEX IQ (typically 5th class pupils) and one for secondary school pupils, VEX EDR (typically TY pupils). Winning teams from the North West will take part in an All Ireland competition in Cork IT and the winners may travel to the US to take part in the World competition.
Claire McDermott Computer Science teacher at Scoil Mhuire said “ We are extremely fortunate in the North-West that there are such excellent partnerships between our schools, LYITs Computing Department and our local STEM industries, these invaluable partnerships ensure our pupils have many enriched engaging experiences.”
All Inishowen schools are invited to the Robotics Information Session in Scoil Mhuire on: Friday 23 March 9.30am – 10.30am.
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