In an attempt to create a new Guinness World Record, robots from all over NSW came together at Macquarie University on October 25 for a huge dance party.
Organised by the staff at Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre, the idea was to set the record for the most robots programmed to move and dance to a piece of music.
The event called ‘So you think your robot can dance” was part of the 3dedrats Festival and more than 200 students from schools all over NSW were in attendance, including seven students from Dungog High School and 17 from Gresford Public School.
The Guinness World record attempt had 156 robots dancing for three minutes and 46 seconds, along with over 200 students, jiggling and hip-hopping.
As part of the Dungog Community of Schools middle years writing project, Gresford Public School’s year 5/6 students have been working with Dungog High School’s Year 10 technology students to explore the exciting world of robotics.
Goals for the project were to support primary students in their transition to high school, for primary and high school teachers to work collaboratively together to teach writing and to facilitate the exchange of professional knowledge between the high school and partner primary schools.
Year 10 students and their teacher Tony Skimmings wrote procedures to assist the younger students in learning to program and use robots.
After exchanges between schools via video conferences and emails, the primary students visited the high school to test the effectiveness of the senior students’ tuition.
Mr Skimmings visited the primary school to familiarise children and teachers with the software.
Gresford principal Pauline Mitchell said after a fun-filled, ‘awesome’ time learning with their high school buddies, the junior students returned to school and wrote ‘advertisements’ [persuasive text] for the robots designed by their high school buddies.
“Student engagement was high and learning to write in these text types was painless for both groups,” Ms Mitchell said.
“ Information was exchanged between schools using the Dungog High School blog.”
As a follow on from this experience, students from both schools travelled to Macquarie University on October 25 where robotics workshops delivered by experts were enjoyed by both groups.
Following these workshops, students joined over 200 other students from around NSW to attempt the Guinness World Record to have the most robots dancing at once.
“Projects such as this promote high student engagement with learning basic skills such as writing, through the exciting world of robot technology,” Ms Mitchell said.
“Working collaboratively across primary and high school settings allows for excellent exchange of teacher knowledge and skills”.
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