Bob up for a robotics class

achieved. We were the pilot year of a program that empowered students to make a difference in the world — and it was awesome.

Nowhere was this pride more prominent than on the second day of the conference during the presentation of the DURING Science Week last month, teacher Bob Elliot and his collaborator Stuart Thorn visited Huonville Primary School to introduce students to robotics.

Bob is a teacher of maths and science at Claremont College, and has been on the Robotics Tasmania committee for six years.

He is the delivery teacher for the Smartbots Program, a Lego-based gifted online program for primary students. He also runs robot clubs in Huonville and New Town, as well as plan we had created. We gathered at Parliament House for the breakfast event that opened National Science week for the whole country.

Dozens of important figures were there with us. The future really did seem bright, with students and dignitaries engaged supporting after-school Ogilvie High School.

Working with Stuart Thorn, Bob has supported students in the assembling of more than 150 Arduino robotic vehicles.

Last year, in collaboration with Penelope Stringer, he ran an “Internet of Things” (IoT) workshop at Woodbridge District School, where students robotics at in seamless conversation on how to make the world a better place.

I was one of the two students who had the privilege of giving the Plan for the Future to the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Senator Arthur Sinodinos. designed and started coding miniature glasshouse control systems (light, water and temperature) using Arduino sensors, relays, pumps and LEDs.

An Arduino is a small, inexpensive computer-like device that can only run one program at a time.

“Robotics is an engaging, hands-on way to introduce students to the engineering design process and the world of makers,” Bob said.

Educational robotics grew out of the ideas of Seymour Papert, leading to the Lego Mindstorms Robots.

In constructionist theory, students learn by building, watching others

The big moment was a nervous one but full of opportunity and hope.

We were placing our hard work in the hands of the politicians, wanting to change the world.

The plan had already started doing that, recognising the build, and displaying their works publicly. Learning works best when students connect to their prior learning.

That connection is clearly evident in the success of the yellow-wheeled “BigTbots” initiative, a robotic vehicle developed by Bob for teaching robotics to students.

His informal BigTbot Book provides coding diagrams and ideas for exploring and building; for example, turn indicators, hazard lights, and line-following tasks to guide a robotic vehicle.

For students to study engineering (and other STEM subjects) at univer- sity, they need to study maths and science in high school. Bob has developed a hand-made Arduino robot kit (the BigTbot) that can be assembled by Year 6 students in about 90 minutes, The students build then program their robot with their phones or with a visual programming Scratch-like language called SNAP.

With more than 75 per cent of the fastest-growing occupations requiring STEM skills, and currently only 16 per cent of students studying STEM-related subjects, the work of teachers such as Bob Elliot and his colleagues is becoming increasingly important.