‘We’re dreaming big’

Nenagh school in international robotics competition final

The children of Rang a Sé at Gaelscoil Aonach are hoping the local community will help send them to Texas having qualified for an international robotics competition.

A sure sign of how advanced primary school education has become, the pupils of Múinteoir Orla McNamara's class learned how to build a robot and programme it to self-drive. They participated in the Dell Technologies VEX programme and have since last September been learning a wide cross-section of skills that culminated in the Nenagh class reaching the national VEX final.

Over 150 schools across Ireland participated in the competition this year. Gaelscoil Aonach won two awards at the regional competition in Limerick and qualified to feature in the national final in Cork. On the strength of their performance in the national final, the Nenagh Gaelscoil pupils were chosen to go where no Irish primary school has gone before, the VEX World Championships, which are taking place in Dallas, Texas, this May.

The Nenagh class count for the only Gaelscoil and only school in the Mid-West chosen to represent Ireland at the world championships. The number of Irish pupils and teachers travelling will be based on the funds they can raise. More than 20 members of Rang a Sé want to make the trip and they are hoping the Nenagh community will support them in this endeavour.

ROBOTS IN SCHOOLS

Many in Nenagh will already be familiar with the VEX Robotics Programme, which was also introduced at the CBS Primary and Kilruane NS. The CBS Secondary and Nenagh College have participated at second level, the latter school also reaching the finals of the competition.

The programme involves contributions from every child in the class, collaborating together as members of distinct teams. The Gaelscoil project involved a finance team, the members of which looked after all of the costs involved and had to raise money for equipment and bus trips. They approached businesses in search of sponsorship, and they collated income and expenditure accounts.

Another team custom-built the robot and a further team was tasked with driving it. There was also a coding team, the members of which programmed the robot so that it could self-drive in autonomous mode. This was one of the hardest areas to score points in, but the Nenagh school scored top points in the competition.

The robot was tasked to play a game called ‘Slapshot’, in which it must release discs from dispensers and move them around a board, scoring points in relation to where it positions the discs. The Gaelscoil robot will be judged on how it performs against the world's best in Dallas.

The class also had a team tasked with keeping an engineering logbook in which to record every detail of the project. And there was a STEM research project team that produced a video investigating how maths patterns found in nature can be used to solve world problems.

EMBRACING STEM

Joe Correia of Dell Technologies visited Gaelscoil Aonach last Thursday in the wake of the exciting news for the successful school. He said the VEX Robotics Programme, which was introduced in 2014, seeks to encourage young people to engage in STEM (science, technology, education and mathematics) education from an early age. Dell provides mentoring and guidance to the pupils and teachers in their robotics endeavour, as well as the material for them to create a robot from.

And while it might read like to the stuff of science fiction to older generations, the Sixth Class students have fully grasped STEM and understand how to make and programme a robot, according to Mr Correria. He was particularly pleased with the Nenagh class, which won both the Design award and the Robot Skills Champion award in the regional event.

Mr Correia spoke of how the programme involves pupils working together in the areas of team-building, problem-solving and entrepreneurship to an extent in many ways beyond that of second level education. He said this was evident when the competition judges spoke to the Nenagh pupils and saw for themselves the level of understanding the children had in their project.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Príomhoide Bríd Uí Shlatara spoke of the Gaelscoil's proud legacy of STEM-related education with many past pupils going on to attain jobs in that area, most famously of course the Collison brothers.

She made the point that the school is not in receipt of public funding towards this endeavour. She and the staff are facing an “uphill battle” in trying to fund and organise a trip to Dallas so that the Nenagh school can participate in the world competition. Ms Uí Shlatara said any support that the community could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Múinteoir Orla McNamara said the school has had very good support from the parents and she hoped the wider community would get behind the cause. Business or corporate sponsorship would be a big help.

An online fundraising page has been set up, and the number of pupils that can travel will depend on the amount raised. With the Dallas competition coming quickly down the tracks on May 2 to 4 next, Ms McNamara realises the challenge involved but nevertheless dares to dream.

“If you dream big, where can that take you?” she asked. “We’re dreaming big and we really hope that we can make this a reality for this group of exceptionally talented kids.”

The iDonate fundraising page is now available here.

Cheques can also be made, payable to Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan.