Marsden Primary students are finalists in the Interface Awards

Our Marsden Primary Year 6 class are one of 5 finalists in the Interface competition best coding category.

The objective was to introduce Year 6 students to basic computer programming using Hummingbird and Visual Programmer by making robots from recycled materials as an art/technology activity. It became so much more than this. Students helped each other and learnt from each other. They had to manage their time, resources, work independently and together. They shared knowledge and ideas. They had to problem solve constantly 'why is my programming sequence not working?’ ‘How do I stop the robots head from falling off every time it moves?’ And of course the Visual Programmer required them to use symbols and to develop a vocabulary around computer programming. They started using programming language like ‘sequence’,‘output’, ‘expression’ etc.

Through trial and error they learnt how to make the lights change colour, flash and turn off and on when they wanted them to. Students programmed them to talk or make sounds and before long the robots were saying all sorts of interesting things!

We want our students to see computer programming as an exciting technology that opens doors to creativity and opportunity so that they will continue to explore it and not see it as something daunting and best avoided.