RoboCup Junior International Competition
After over a year of preparation, our talented Robotics students in team Around the World won Best Team in the SuperTeam Challenge at the RoboCup Junior International Competition in the OnStage league, held virtually in June. This outstanding achievement required a great deal of collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving.
Robotics Showcase events
Somerville House Robotics students – ranging from Years 5 to 11 – spent several months working in teams at after-school sessions to create and program their robots for presentation at our showcase events. The purpose of these showcases is for students and parents to see the efforts of each group in answering one of the RoboCup Junior challenges - OnStage, Line Rescue or Soccer. It also allows all coaches and staff to observe the groups and decide who will compete in the RoboCup Junior competitions in Terms 3 and 4. Each team introduced and exhibited their robot in action, featuring sets and props.
Year 6 students Grace and Sarah showed off their Soccer robot.
“It follows the ball and tries to score a goal,” Grace said.
“We also have a robot that plays defence and guards the goal,” she said.
“With help, it took us about five weeks to create the code that controls the robot. And not too long to create the actual robot.”
The events concluded with a presentation of pennants by Principal, Mrs Kim Kiepe.
Digital Design Technology Teacher Dr Daniel Tuazon coordinates the Robotics Programme at Somerville House. Students are led by Coaches including Old Girls Margaux Edwards (Class of 2017, Bachelor of Mechatronic Engineering student), Genevieve Hughes (Class of 2020, Bachelor of Engineering student), and Jamieson Ritchie (Class of 2020, Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Information Technology student).
Speaking to the Queensland University of Technology News, Jameson said, “I never knew what I wanted to do until Year 10 when I went to a summer school at the University of Sydney and studied Robotics. From there, I enrolled in my school’s Robotics Program and competed at the national RoboCup event. When I did the Robotics Program at school, my coaches were past students who’d gone on to study mechatronics and robotics at QUT… that really inspired me.”
Year 7 board games assessment
In their Technologies & Entrepreneurship Connect class, Year 7 students are developing educational board games that address a societal issue and use technologies such as 3D printing to create game pieces.
Technologies & Entrepreneurship Connect is a cross-curriculum subject between Commerce and Digital Solutions and Technologies Departments.
After exploring the characteristics of real-world economic, environmental and social issues, students have worked in groups to develop the concepts for their games and are now in the phase of beta testing the prototypes of other groups, requiring the girls to provide each group with constructive feedback on their prototype via a survey they have designed on Microsoft Forms.
Students Sharlene and Maddy were part of a group whose game is designed to educate the player about water pollution and the rising numbers of endangered species due to improper waste management.
“Each player is given an animal figurine that they use to move around the board,” Maddy said.
“You have to time yourself to see how many pieces of rubbish you can pick up, and if you can collect the amount you need, you will move forward on the board,” she said.
Another student, Camryn, along with her group, has designed a game that educates the player about homelessness, with progress on the board determined by whether the player makes money or not.
“Whoever makes it to the end of the board by making the most money wins,” Cameron said.
“Players can collect ‘lottery’ cards along the way where they have the opportunity to buy a lottery ticket and win. There are also ‘chance’ cards where players can buy a house depending on how much money they have,” she said.
The remaining units of the course will involve the production of their final board game, followed by developing a marketing strategy.
These projects have pushed students to use their creativity, innovation and enterprise, collaboration and digital skills. We look forward to seeing their final games!