Anna began her STEAM journey trying out the Creator Academy Mixed Reality and Coding course for kids aged 5 - 6 years old. This course taught basic numeracy and literacy skills as well as programming through the use of mixed-reality interfaces on tablet devices. Classes introduced complex coding ideas like loops and conditionals in an easy-to-understand and engaging system.
Soon afterwards, Anna moved on to her next challenge in Junior Robotics and Coding for kids aged 7 - 8 years old.
LEGO robotics offered a new challenge in spatial awareness and engineering by giving students a combination of construction and programming tasks.
Another great aspect of Junior Robotics is the focus on a broad range of scientific themes like weather, animals, cities and space travel.
As kids build their capabilities, they are gradually encouraged to document their learnings and explain solutions to others.
After mastering WeDo 2.0 in Junior Robotics, Anna moved on to learning the harder EV3 system in the CA Robotics course for kids over 9 years old (also known as Advanced Robotics).
This complex system teaches children how to critically analyse and debug hardware and software problems.
Projects in the Robotics class are often so large that they span across multiple weeks. Students improve their technical language and documentation skills.
Students in this class also build mental resilience through working in larger teams and communicating complex ideas.
In the FIRST LEGO League season City Shaper, Anna was chosen as part of CA’s rookie team Rebuilders of the Future.
An FLL competition is judged on robotics, innovation project and core values - each of which is given equal weighting in the competition.
As a core values leader, Anna assisted in both robotics and the innovation project, whilst developing presentation and documentation for her teammates.
Over a 6 month period, Anna’s team visited experts like the Transport Management Centre to learn more about how government agencies run our cities.
Anna and her team qualified in the Wahroonga Regional Championships, and became a national finalist in the Australian National Championships held in Macquarie University. The team received the regional Innovation and Strategy Award and the Ryde Innovation Award for their FLL project.
The CA curriculum scales perfectly for students of all ages and abilities, giving them unique experiences in science and technology. We wish Anna and her teammates continued successes in STEAM education in the future!