Programming a win: Peterborough students participate in 3rd annual robotics competition

The annual robotics competition returned to St. Patrick Elementary School on Thursday, pitting 24 student teams against each other in a battle of programming and building skills.

“The great opportunity of collaborative learning, of coding, mathematics and technology is that it connects all students,” said Laurie Corrigan, superintendent of learning, innovation technologies, for the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic School Board.

Students were challenged to build robots that could play hockey, navigate a maze and survive a few rounds in the boxing ring.

Grade 8 student Emily Skinner competed last year, and says her team didn’t do as well as she had hoped.

“Right now, we’re all about having fun and about all that stuff,” Skinner said. “But also, I really want to get back at one big robot that’s going to target you and push you out of the ring.”

But it’s not just about fun and games. This competition gives students a chance to try something different and learn something new in the process.

“It’s the coding part,” said Grade 8 student Brian Tardiff. “I really like computers and technology.”

“It’s really fun, and I get to learn more about programming, and just have a lot of fun while doing it and be with my friends,” said Grade 7 student Paige Millard.

It’s very creative, and you can customize robots to fight each other, and it’s really fun to see them go and do what you programmed them to do,” St. Anthony student Travis Walker said.

And there are a few other things that make this 24-school competition appealing.

“The most appealing thing here is that a lot of the kids here have never been able to represent a school, because they can’t do basketball, they can’t do soccer, because they’ve never made a team,” said competition organizer James Steve. “But in this case, they can make a team because it’s intellectual.”