Teaching robotics to our youngest students involves much more than learning how to design, build and programme a kitset robot to move around.

 “It also teaches critical thinking, collaboration, clear communication, problem solving and perseverance,” explains STEAM-ED General Manager Toni de Rijk. “In our classes children usually work in pairs as we believe it is just as important to develop the teamwork skills which will be required in any future engineering career.”

There is currently a huge skills shortage in technology and engineering-based jobs across all industries in Aotearoa. To help address this issue, the STEAM-ED Charitable Trust is trying to foster a love of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math education (STEAM) among local students aged 5 to 13.

Sparking Interest

STEAM-ED was formed in mid-2021 and offers lessons for homeschool children, after school classes, and holiday programmes run at their venue opposite Tauranga Boys College. They also run an eight-week robotics programme in schools in low socio-economic areas and BayTrust has just granted $25,000 towards operational costs for these classes.

“The main aim is to try and let them enjoy technology, robotics, engineering and other STEAM related topics so that when they go into high school or later schooling, they’re not afraid to take those subjects, because they’ve had a taster of it and they’ve enjoyed it. Hopefully that will lead to higher paying careers and better outcomes later on down the track,” Toni explains.

STEAM-ED also hopes to boost gender and ethnic diversity among future tertiary students by fostering success and enjoyment at a young age.

“In general, females seem to be a little bit more careful with their coding,” Toni observes. “The guys just want to go the fastest. Whereas girls are measuring out the space and trying to get it precise. In the first week we do challenges and it’s predominately the girls who win. It’s so cool to see them succeed at that level. And we know that success and enjoyment is going to directly correlate into potential future enrolments into those STEAM subjects when they get into high school.”

Unleashing Minds

STEAM-ED teaching assistant Ella Dunlop is one of two educators who travel to schools to deliver the robotics programme. Lessons are delivered once a week for eight weeks using VEX GO robot kits and iPads.

“We generally start with them getting to know and understand the kit. A lot of them haven’t used this type of technology before and some have never used iPads before. They don't know that you can hold your fingers together and stretch them out and make the picture bigger. So it’s getting them familiar around not just robots, but other technology as well.”

Once students have built their robot, they are introduced to coding. “They teach their robots how to move and programme them to pick up different coloured magnets or flash different coloured lights. At the end of the term we play something fun like robot soccer. They get to have a bit of competition which they all seem to love.”

Ella says neurodiverse children who find it more difficult to succeed in traditional classroom lessons, can thrive during the robotics sessions. “The teachers can’t believe what this child is capable of doing. This child’s been not achieving at the back of the class, and all of a sudden they’re the star of the show. Kids love being able to put mathematics into practical, real use instead of it just being a picture or numbers on a board.”

The excitement and creativity shown is particularly inspiring, Ella says. “Sometimes, when the kids hear the word ‘coding’, you can see there’s a little bit of anxiety. They’re not familiar with it but it’s insane how quickly it clicks with them. They take simple coding, run with it and make it their own.”

Funding Support

Toni says it costs around $90,000 a year to run the in-school robotics programme – all of which needs to be fundraised because STEAM-ED does not receive any Ministry of Education funding.

“We are totally reliant on grants such as this so we are rapt to have BayTrust’s support. This $25,000 grant will keep us going and will pay for our staff wages, transport costs and allow us to keep up-to-date with equipment because it does get a hammering. We’ll be able to buy a few more iPads and another set or two of VEX Go robots because they do get a pretty hard life.”

High Demand

Over the past 12 months, almost 600 children at 11 different schools have taken part in STEAM-ED’s classroom-based robotics lessons.

“Another thing we find is a lot of schools have a little bit of robotics equipment, but the teachers don’t know how to use it. So we include the teachers in our classroom lessons so they get professional development by learning a bit about coding. Then they can use their own equipment once we’ve moved on so that’s actually really valuable too.”

In future, the trust hopes to expand into mid-decile schools if more funding can be secured.

“Every school asks us to go back again,” explains Toni. “When our educators walk into a school, kids come running over asking ‘is it robotics today?!” They get so excited. Teachers tell us that attendance is higher on the days that we go in and that’s really cool. If we’re making a difference to a child’s education because they want to go to school, then that’s another win.”