Year 3OH Speedy Bots

This term, students in 3OH have been building simple robots using Lego.  In this unit of work, students have been using block coding to program small robots as well as investigating simple sensors to control their robots.  The Lego WeDo robots are controlled using a coding program on the iPads which is then sent to the robot using Bluetooth technology.

Students have also been investigating principles of simple machines as part of their building and design process.  In order to make their robots and racing cars move, students need to ensure they have included an axle, gears, etc.  We have also investigated why the size (circumference) of the tyre is important.

3OH’s final challenge is to design and build a robot car that can drive along a racing track and also be able to stop at an allocated destination.  Students can choose to use coding to control when their vehicle stops, or they can make use of a sensor to ensure their vehicle stops at the right place.   

Year 4 Animations

Students in Year 4 have been creating animations.  Using PowerPoint, students created a series of slides to show a cartoon character reciting a poem.  Students needed to work out the mouth movements required to make their animated character look like they were talking and then create a slide for each of these mouth movements!  As you can imagine, a great deal of time was spent planning these animations.

Each student then recorded the voice for their character, this was added to the character pictures they had created.  The next tricky part was deciding on the timing for each slide so that the cartoon character looked like it was actually talking at the same pace as the voice recording.  Even though this took a long time, the results were worth the effort.  The final animations looked amazing!

Year 6 HASS

Year 6 have been using computers to develop their research skills.  After devising and refining their research question, students used the laptops to gather information about refugees from historical sources on the internet to answer their research question.   Students are developing an understanding of reasons why people throughout history have made the decision to migrate to a new country, the conditions people face while undertaking a migration journey and ways in which individuals contribute to their new communities.