PICTURES: Laois kids have summer fun making robots

Children from across Laois got the chance to have some educational fun when they learned all about making robots at their local library.  Laois STEM Engagement Officer Seanie Morris visited six branches across the county in one week to host robot building, engineering and driving taster sessions with families in Abbeyleix, Mountmellick, Mountrath, Portarlington, Portlaoise and Rathdowney. READ MORE BELOW PHOTO

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Lots of families with children ranging in age from 8 to 14 came along, grabbed a kit to build a remote controlled BaseBot using the VEX IQ build system and then drive it around the library. Some branches even got to take part in a game of Robot Red Light Green Light. With this, Seanie demonstrated the coding capabilities of their robots and how computer programming
works. The VEX IQ Robotics system is what Laois County Council has been and will continue to deliver to as many Laois primary schools as possible.

As of this July, 22 primary and all 10 secondary schools have received a kit since last September. The aim is to get these kits into every school. As part of Laois’s Pathway to Just Transition, reaching out to kids with these taster STEM activities like coding, robotics and engineering will help children get interested in these skills and carry them through school.

The STEM Engagement Officer delivers the kits and other activities and provides ongoing support to teachers and pupils all year long, including the VEX IQ Robotics Competition.

"These skills are vital for our region’s economic growth towards a just transition to lowering our carbon footprint with new advanced-manufacturing methods of production and sustainability. The pupils of today will become the skilled workforce of the future," said Seanie. 

"Our STEM Engagement Team will continue to liaise with schools from this September to encourage participation in and the uptake of our STEM programmes by hosting robotics, coding and engineering initiatives with pupils on a regular basis throughout the academic year. Thank you to our library staff for their help in hosting these fun STEM activities."

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The Midlands Regional Enterprise Plan & Pathway for Transition is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the EU Just Transition Fund Programme 2021-2027. This Project is an initiative of the Local Authorities of the Midlands region, comprising Laois (lead partner), Longford, Offaly and Westmeath.