Mary Immaculate College (MIC) has outlined the broad-ranging merits of educational robotics as 400 students from 15 primary schools in the mid-west took part in the 2024 regional final of the Dell Technologies VEX IQ Robotics Competition—held in conjunction with MIC annually.
Hosted at the Dell Limerick campus in Raheen, the event saw students take part in a demanding game-based engineering challenge to design, code and build robots. Everyone in a class can have a role participating in the VEX IQ program and according to Dr Eleanor Walsh, Acting Director of Enterprise & Community Engagement at MIC, incorporating robotics across school curricula has wide-ranging benefits beyond STEM disciplines.
“The Dell VEX Robotics program is a long-standing collaboration with MIC that is going from strength to strength. It’s been wonderful to work with teachers and schools on integrating robotics across the primary school curriculum into areas like Science, Literacy, Numeracy and Art, and extending this into digital and interpersonal skills improvement.”
Schools from Limerick, Clare and Tipperary took home awards from the regional final. CBS Ennis won the Judges Award, while Gaelscoil an Ráithín and Kilcornan National School were joint winners of the Teamwork Champion Award. Gaelscoil an Ráithín were best performing in their field, and also won the Robot Skills Award, while Kilcornan NS also secured the Design Award. Gaelscoil an Ráithín came away as the overall winner taking home the much-coveted Excellence Award.
This year, the pupils also delved into a STEM Research Challenge themed The Science of Water Conservation. These projects were judged by a team from Dell Technologies Graduate Employee Resource Group “GenNEXT”. The winner of the STEM award was one of the teams from Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, “Gaelic Gladiators” who demonstrated a high level of understanding of the project brief and delivered a well-produced video and presentation.
Both Limerick schools took away prizes in the national finals at MTU, Cork too—the Judges Award for Gaelscoil an Ráithín and second place in the Teamwork Award for Kilcornan NS.
Dr Walsh—who was also a judge at the VEX Challenge national secondary school finals—applauded the hard work and dedication demonstrated by all schools in the run up to the regional and national finals.
“While the focus is naturally on the competitions when they occur, I think the students gain a lot from the practice and preparations, as well as project work, which takes place over a number of months. This year, we were particularly pleased to have a full-scale arena and other equipment for schools to avail of in the CRAFT Maker Space in MIC.”
Sean O’Reilly, EMEA vice president of Logistics and Limerick site leader for Dell Technologies, outlined the importance of STEM learning in shaping the future, applauding the students for showcasing problem-solving and computational skills.
“STEM learning plays a vital role in helping to nurture developers and engineers of the future. That’s why our team in Limerick have once again joined forces with Mary Immaculate College to host over 400 primary school students from across the mid-west at the regional competition. The event provides a fun way for us to engage young people in technology and spark their interest in STEM. Congratulations to all the students and teachers who put on a powerful demonstration of their problem-solving and computational skills during the recent regional final at our campus in Limerick.”
The VEX IQ Competition, running since 2014, engages students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) over a few months, through a process of designing, building, programming and driving robots to complete tasks in a custom-built field and yearly changing game. Dell and MIC volunteer their time to support students and teachers during this period, providing mentorship and organising practice sessions.
The Dell Technologies VEX Robotics Competition is a well-established collaboration between Dell and MIC, recognised with The Teaching Council’s Collaboration Award in 2019.
MIC continues to support teachers through curriculum integration and offers Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses in conjunction with staff from Dell, including a week-long summer course in July. To find out more about a CPD course for teachers in July in MIC on Integrating Robotics across the Primary School Curriculum, click here.
To get more information about VEX IQ and VEX VRC (the secondary school VEX programme), visit: www.roboticseducationireland.com
To find out more about activities in the CRAFT Maker Space, see www.stemcraft.mic.ul.ie
The gallery from the regional final of the Dell Technologies VEX IQ Robotics Competition shows the excitement of the contest on the day.
