Teesside High School students scoop two prizes in national School Robot Competition

Friday 26 March 2021 | By Samantha Hockney

Students at Teesside High School are celebrating after claiming two prizes in a national robotics competition.

The team of Year 7 pupils have been congratulated for their work designing a robot to navigate exciting space terrains by the UK-Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network (UK-RAS Network) and educational publisher Twinkl, who teamed up in 2020 to run their School Robot Competition for a second year.

The competition challenged teams of school children from across the UK to design a robot to explore the surface of Mars using innovative technology.

Willoughby, Ivy, Holly and Austin were in Year 6 when they built, developed and tested robots to take on the Martian terrain via an augmented reality app, led by their Computing teacher, Mr Griffiths.

The team was delighted to be told they had won not one but two Judge’s Choice prizes for their efforts; winning the Future Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Space (FAIR-SPACE) Hub Terrain Challenge and the Pipebots Terrain Challenge.

Teesside High School received a 601-piece high-tech Lego EV3 model set and four Makeblock Educational Robot Kits following the team’s high performance.

Austin, age 11, said: “We worked really hard to combine our learning from Science and Computing lessons with ideas on what a robot on Mars could look like. It is amazing to be named a winner across two categories in such a big competition.”

The 2020 School Robot Competition attracted a record number of entries, with many groups overcoming lockdown and distance learning challenges to create their competition entry from home.

Mark Griffiths, Deputy Head (Prep School) at Teesside High School said: “We are extremely proud that our students have been recognised at a national level for their innovative and creativity with this project.

“It is particularly exciting to hand over the children’s prizes as we celebrate STEM Week at school; a week dedicated to broadening the horizons of our children with regards to aspirations and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It is certain there is a lot of talent in these areas at THS.”