Our Year 7 students visited Casey Technology School for the second time this year on Thursday. They spent the day learning all about different forms of technology including coding, robotics and virtual reality. The girls approached every learning task with great enthusiasm, eager to learn all about these new ways of thinking.

Please see a student’s account of the day below.

Grace S, Year 7

On the 25th of August, the Year 7’s and I visited Casey Tech School for a Science Discovery program. The activities we participated in fell under 3 main categories: robotics, coding and virtual reality. For robotics, we learnt that robots are very important in our lives as they are very accurate, efficient and safe. For the activity, we were asked to assemble a phone by removing a broken camera and placing a new camera, battery, circuit board and screen by using a robotic arm with a suction cup called a DoBot.

For Virtual Reality, we used an app called Tilt Brush which allowed us to virtually design and create artwork with a few simple clicks of a button. We learnt that virtual reality is useful in our day-to-day lives as it can simulate safety protocols, such as in the air force or medical field. Lastly, we coded drones to fly in certain directions and to do little stunts such as doing a backflip. Whilst there are many positive aspects of having drones, for instance to scan areas of danger such as a fire, we learnt there are also many disadvantages of having a drone as the blades can be a safety hazard and that drones with cameras can invade people’s privacy.

Overall, the instructors were very warm and friendly and answered any questions we had. It was such a fun and educational excursion, and I would like to thank Chisholm for this wonderful experience, Dr. Antony for organising the trip and for Mrs. Van Rensburg for accompanying us.