A group of students in 9MV had an opportunity to explore robotics as part of the Space topic in Science this year. While part of the class was designing and testing rockets, the rest of the class were imagining what a robot would do on a “Mission to Mars”. As it takes anywhere between three and 22 minutes to send information to Mars, the learning had to involve some programming so the robot could be self-sustaining once it landed on the Martian landscape.

We were fortunate enough to be loaned some Sphero and MakerBots from PB Tech, and to have some support from Nathan Scott from Cyclone. With this expert support, the students were able to master driving and programming their robots. It was exciting to see each group learn about how to use the ultrasound and other sensors to make their respective robots explore “Mars” without them having to actively drive them.

Thank you to PB Tech and Nathan for supporting our robotics learning in our “Mission to Mars”. Every student involved learned a new appreciation of robotics, programming and space exploration.