Students to Engage in Robotics Summer Camp

Scores of students from primary and secondary schools across the island will be emersed in the intricate world of robotics during the summer.

For four weeks from July 2 to 30, the students will gather at selected campuses across the island, where they will benefit from an engaging and educational programme covering robotics engineering, robotics fundamentals, reactive robotics, electronic engineering, among other things.

The participating campuses are Jamaica College, Ardenne High, Hillel Academy, and Wolmer’s Boys in St. Andrew; St. Hilda’s High, St. Ann; Munro College, St. Elizabeth; and Bishop Gibson High, Manchester.

The summer school initiative is being undertaken by local firm Zed Technologies in collaboration with the Canadian-based Zebra Robotics.Speaking at the recent launch of the robotics camp at the Karl Hendrickson Auditorium at Jamaica College, State Minister in the Ministry of Education and Youth, Hon. Marsha Smith, said the summer programme aligns with the Ministry’s focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.

“This camp aligns with the Ministry’s ambitious goal of targeting key areas of the education system because what we want at the end of the day is improved student outcomes and higher job satisfaction for teachers,” she said.

She noted that through the STEM Ambassador programme in schools there has been a rise in the number of robotic clubs and competitions, emphasising the critical thinking, problem-solving and collaboration that Jamaica needs “to be the place where we want to live, raise families, work and do business”.

Meanwhile, teachers and students who will be participating in the robotics camp are excited about the knowledge to be gained.

Principal of Bryce Primary School in Manchester, Mavilla Whyte, said that students from grades two, three and five will be attending.

“Starting at such a young age you can see how sparked they are with the whole idea of seeing Legos come alive, because they play with the Legos but now it’s actually seeing the Legos come alive into a robot,” she noted.

Grade-five student Adrianna Dennis said she was looking forward to the camp, noting that the students will learn “why robots are important, how to use them, what they are for, how they function and how they are built”.

Her classmate, Gabriella Simpson, noted that “robotics can help us in many ways. If a person doesn’t know how to do a certain thing they can ask the robots or teach them how to do stuff that can help them with what they’re doing”.

Decarteret College’s Jaden Cover, who has had previous robotics training, said the summer camp will be beneficial in enabling students to make career choices and to understand and maneuvre artificial intelligence (AI).

“At this camp, I hope to gain further knowledge about how to code and how to understand the processes of robotics as well as gain the true understanding of what we can do with robotics”.

Other schools represented at the launch included Irwin High, St. Catherine; and Kingston College, Lister Mair/Gilby High School for the Deaf, Pembroke Hall High and Papine High School in the Corporate Area.