Offaly school progresses to world robotics final in Texas

Following on from very successful county finals, seven Offaly primary schools progressed to the National VEX Robotics finals held in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork:

They were St Mary's National School, Pullough, St. Brendan's Boys Primary School, Birr, Cappagh National School, Scoil Eoin Phóil, Tullamore, High Street National School, Tubber National School and Scoil Shinchill - Killeigh National School

A total of 24 teams took part in the national finals and Offaly schools walked away with numerous awards.

Tubber National School won two awards - the Robot Skills Champion award (presented to the team with the highest combined Programming Skills Challenge and Driving Skills Challenge score) and the Think Award (presented to a team that has developed and effectively used quality program as part of their strategy to solve the game challenge).

Teams must participate in the Autonomous skills challenge to be eligible for the Think award.

Key criteria:

• All programming is cleanly written, well documented, and easy to understand

• Team has explained a clear programming strategy to solve the game challenge

• Team demonstrates their programming management process, including version history

• Students understand and are able to explain how they worked together to develop their robot programming

Tubber NS will now represent Ireland at the Vex IQ Robotics World Championship Finals in Dallas, Texas later this year.

High Street National School received the 2nd place Teamwork Award

The Secondary school competition also took place in the same venue and Offaly was represented by the following three schools:. Coláiste Íosagáin Portarlington, Sacred Heart School, Tullamore and Gallen Community School, Ferbane.

Gallen Community School won the Judges Award at the finals. This Award is presented to a team that the Judges determine is deserving of special recognition. Judges consider a number of possible criteria for this award, such as team displays of special attributes, exemplary effort and perseverance at the event, or team accomplishments or endeavours throughout the season that may not fit under existing awards but are nonetheless deserving of special recognition.

Speaking about the event, Offaly County Council’s Broadband Officer and Head of IT, Ray Bell outlined “Offaly schools have embraced this STEM initiative and the Council is delighted with the level of interest and support. It is great to see Offaly schools competing at a national and now international stage working on robotics and giving these students the skills for an exciting future. Students develop critical thinking, coding, designing, engineering and of course, team work skills. All of these talents and skills will assist them in their career paths.”