PR E PA R ATORY S C HO OL
The wonderful world of Robogals!
As part of our Guildford Girls Club we
welcomed an incursion from Robogals
during Term 1. Girls from Years 4-6 enjoyed
an interactive afternoon of programming
robots and completing collaborative
challenges. There was a very special buzz
of excitement in the air when the robots
were unveiled and the students listened
attentively when being shown how to
program them.
Robogals is an international, not-for-profit
organisation that aims to increase female
participation in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
through educational initiatives aimed at
girls. Using programmable robots, Robogals
teach the principles of engineering in a
fun and creative manner. The girls worked
together to creatively and critically problemsolve a series of challenges, the first of
which was to program a robot to navigate
itself in a circle. Using software on laptops,
the girls had to program a set of instructions
to tell the robot to turn a certain direction
and angle, for a certain amount of time and
speed. The majority of teams were able to
work through the task with only minimal
help from the Robogals presenters, making
minor adjustments to their program until
their robot could drive itself in a circle. It
was wonderful to see all of the students
actively engaged, enthusiastic and willing
to work with others to achieve a single
objective.
discussion as to what these could achieve in
daily life. Spy bots were definitely the crowd
favourite! Due to time restraints not all
groups were able to achieve this challenge,
but those that did were extremely impressed
with themselves, as well they should be!
Lastly, the Robogals presenters engaged the
girls in a discussion about career pathways
in order to introduce them to the possibility
of a future in engineering, a career which
is predominantly pursued by males. This
astounding gender imbalance in the STEM
fields and the wider problem of an engineer
shortage in Australia are both serious
issues that will affect the productivity and
economic growth of our nation. Robogal’s
mission is to inspire, engage and empower
young women into engineering and related
fields.
It is never too early to get our girls thinking
about their future careers, and it aligns
well with the School’s mission statement
that centres on inspiring students to be
outstanding citizens.
The second challenge was to program the
robots to roam on top of a raised surface
(we used desks) and stop before it reached
the edge. For this we needed to attach
cameras to the robots, which opened up
Ms Bethany Tracey
Girls Club Coordinator
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