Sci-tech week empowers elementary kids on robotics

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

Around 50 students from two elementary schools in Iloilo City gained firsthand experience manipulating and commanding a robot during a robotics workshop at the Iloilo Convention Center on Thursday.

The “Robotics Workshop for Young Innovators” was organized by the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Science High School System (DOST-PSHSS).

“They are Grade 6, and they were introduced to the world of computer programming and robotics — an emerging technology, considering that we are in the age of artificial intelligence. At the age of Grade 6, they are given the opportunity to explore robotics,” Joel Bautista of DOST-PSHSS told the Daily Guardian.

The workshop was attended by students from Jaro Elementary School and Iloilo Central Elementary School (ICES).

Bautista emphasized that the learning environment of the workshop was “appreciative, discovery, and exploratory.”

“Maybe they might see themselves as someone who would like to venture into the field of technology,” he added, emphasizing that the workshop primarily aims to inspire local grade schoolers to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through robotics.

During the workshop, students used mBot, an educational robot for beginners designed to make teaching and learning robot programming simple and fun.

They also learned the basic programming language to control and give commands to the assembled mBot.

One student from ICES mentioned that the workshop was challenging, especially in programming how their robots can move.

“I learned how to code the actions or how to make the robot move. It is interesting because we were taught how to operate the robot,” he said.

As their final output in the workshop, the students’ robots engaged in a “SumoBot” activity, where two robots attempted to push each other out of a black cardboard.