Tullamore students enjoy Robotics competition success

Tullamore's Sacred Heart School continues to forge a path in all things STEM with their continued success in the VEX Robotics competition.

On Tuesday, 21st February the Sacred Heart robotics team ‘The Steminists’ competed in the midlands regional finals of the VEX Robotics secondary school competition and consistently beat all competitors to emerge as victorious champions.

VEX Robotics is an exciting programme where school children from 8-18 years, learn about Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). Competitors must design, build, program and compete with their robot in a game against schools from across the midlands.

Students also focus on many skills such as project management, organisation, presentation, teamwork, leadership and much more. Teacher Ms Sindy Meleady said “As a post primary school, it is our responsibility to help prepare young people for the future and with the demand for STEM careers increasing every year, it is important that the next generation learn how to make a difference in their world.”

The students who are now styled “Steminists” were thrilled to be awarded the ‘Tournament Champions Award’. The Tournament Champions Award is presented to the 1st Place Finalist. The Steminists will now go to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork on Thursday, the 23rd of February to compete in the All-Ireland Championship.

This comes on top of the success of the Sacred Heart Lego Club in the First Lego League regional finals. FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge is a global STEM programme for teams of young people, to encourage an interest in real world themes and develop key skills that are crucial for their future careers.

Young people work together to explore a given topic and to design, build and program an autonomous LEGO® robot to solve a series of missions.

Two SHS teams competed on the day ‘The Giants’ and ‘The Titians’. The Giants walked away with not one but two awards on the day, ‘Overall Tournament Champions’ and ‘Robot Performance’. The ‘Tournament Champions’ award celebrates a team that embodies the First Lego league Challenge experience by fully embracing the core values while also achieving excellence and innovation in robot performance, robot design and the innovation project. The ‘Robot Performance’ award celebrates a team that scores the most points during the robot game. The Giants are eagerly awaiting another opportunity to showcase their innovation project and robot at the All Ireland finals on the 24th of March in Dublin.

Congratulations also goes to the other Sacred Heart School team the Titans who placed third in the competition and really impressed the judges with their skill and innovative ideas. The Giants now look forward to another opportunity to showcase their innovative project and robot at the All Irelands on the 24th of March.