After successfully progressing through three heats, 24 students from a variety of Sutherland Shire primary schools gathered at Caringbah Public on 27 October to battle to become the inaugural ANSTO Top Coder.
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| Twenty-four of the Sutherland Shire's top coders receive medals for participating in the ANSTO-sponsored competition. Sutherland Shire Council Mayor Carmelo Pesce (centre) joined ANSTO Education Officer Nathan Slawitschka (left of the Mayor) and Caringbah Public School teacher Robert Entwistle at the event. |
The Year 5 winners were Declan C and Lewis W from Lilli Pilli Public School.The Year 6 winners were Mark T and Ryley D from Engadine West Public School.
Using the Scratch program, Year 5 and 6 students have learnt the fundamentals of coding by creating games and animations that showcase the importance of ‘Environmental Sustainability’. For the Grand Final, their challenge was to produce fun and engaging content on the theme of ‘Maths is everywhere’.
The competition was developed by the schools’ neighbourhood science facility, ANSTO, Australia’s home of applied science, and on Thursday 27 October Mayor Carmelo Pesce awarded the first ANSTO Top Coders.
Rod Dowler from the Discovery Centre said that ANSTO is always excited to offer local students new opportunities to engage with STEM.
“ANSTO Top Coder has been developed off the back of our successful school holiday coding programs, and a keen interest from a big group of our local schools to allow students to get more involved,” he said.
“Coding is a language in and of itself, and just like a foreign language, the earlier students start the better, so it is really wonderful to see so many schools encouraging students of all ages to flex their STEM muscles.
“Every day we are seeing that STEM skills will be key to these kids jobs of the future – and for a lot of them, the jobs they’ll have in 10 or 15 years don’t even exist yet.
“We want to ensure programs like this delivers accessibility of these important skills to all students. We have especially encouraged young girls into the competition and play in this space that has traditionally been of more interest to boys.
“While this is ANSTO Top Coders first year, we’re definitely planning to expand the contest, and build on other competitions that we know are happening in schools all throughout the region.
Robert Entwistle, Year 2 teacher and Top Coder Coordinator at Caringbah Public School said that the ANSTO Top Coder competition has been a highlight of the school year for many of the students.
“Coding is something they are excited by, they can see the outputs of their work, and it’s something that’s new and different and challenging for them,” he said.
“We have seen an incredibly positive result in our school, and now have formed three Coding Clubs for the different skill levels, with over 60 children involved.
“The opportunity to connect with ANSTO has really inspired the students to think about how science could be something they could pursue in the future and the students have really responded that.
“The excitement and dedication has also spread more widely through our school community as well, and thanks to our P&C our coding capabilities have been expanded with the purchase of LEGO Mindstorm Robotics and Raspberry Pi computers.
“Learning these computational thinking skills will be the key to jobs of the future, and an exciting competition like this provides an incentive for students to get involved in computer science.”
Each school holidays, ANSTO runs dedicated programs for school students in coding and robotics and many other areas.
Media contact: Phil McCall 0438 619 987
Published: 28/10/2016