Aspida Advisory Services are delighted to be sponsoring Blanchelande’s brand new Robotics Club.
The idea of the new Robotics Club was launched to students in the recent British Science Week and will introduce Blanchelande students from Years 6-10 to LEGO Education SPIKE Prime (“SPIKE Prime”).
SPIKE Prime is considered to be a leading global STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) learning tool for students above the age of 10. It combines colourful LEGO building elements, easy-to-use hardware, and an intuitive drag-and-drop coding language based on Scratch.
Scratch is already used in Blanchelande to teach basic coding principles to pupils, and so using SPIKE Prime provides a natural extension and enhancement of these skills for students. Furthermore, SPIKE Prime has sufficient processing capabilities to continue to provide relevant complex coding experience through to adulthood.
Benefits of the Robotics Club to students
Blanchelande College approached Aspida with the concept of working together on the robotics club, identifying a number of benefits to the students.
a fun and unintimidating introduction to robotics, coding and STEM;
providing opportunities to experience engineering, mathematics and physics concepts in real life;
encouraging teamwork as pupils will need to work in teams of two and three at a time to complete their tasks;
enhancing students’ critical thinking and creativity as tasks are centered around solving complex problems which have limitless creative design possibilities and solutions; and
preparing students for future careers which are likely to include aspects of team work, critical thinking and STEM
Donation of laptops and expertise
Through the sponsorship, Aspida has donated ten top of the range laptops to enable each team to work dynamically and code on the move while testing and iterating on their programs using their robots and will also be donating their time to help guide the Robotics teams.
Kevin Gilligan, Head of Aspida Advisory Services says “When Blanchelande approached us with this opportunity, we jumped at the chance to support them. Working with AI and powerful software tools in the workplace everyday means we are perfectly positioned to create coding challenges for the students to learn from and our colleagues are equally excited to be involved with the lessons to explore STEM and show them how it can connect with their future careers with technology. We as a Group are looking forward to growing the Robotics Club with Blanchelande and seeing where it can go.
Robert O’Brien, Blanchelande’s Principal continues, “Coding, Robotics and AI are going to revolutionise the workplace and we’re looking for a way to enthuse our students by drawing in local expertise and providing some of the latest equipment. We are thrilled that Aspida have generously sponsored the computers for use alongside the LEGO Spike kits and that some of their team are keen to be volunteers with the Robotics club, working alongside our teachers. It’s an exciting addition to our extracurricular offering. To get on the Robotics team students from Year 6-10 have designed a game on Scratch – we have sent these to Aspida to choose the winners.”
