Northern Zone schools introduced to Robotics Science

A two-day workshop on Robotics Science organized for Senor High School Science Clubs in the Northern part of Ghana has ended in Tamale.

The training was under the auspices of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in Information Technology, with support from the United States Embassy, the Royal Danish Embassy and Lego Education.

Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, a senior robotics engineer from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the interactive training focused on real-life Science and Mathematics problem-solving by working with computers and robot construction kits.

At the workshop, he said, the teams built robots from the Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 robotics construction kits, learned to operate the robots with laptops and computer software, and then programmed the robots to perform various tasks.

In the end, he said, they are expected to have skills which would make them accomplish tasks in the most efficient manner, or to collaborate with other teams to jointly accomplish a task, much like scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and programmers, in the real world, he said.

Dr Trebi-Ollennu who has participated in three of the NASA Mars Rover missions said about 41 Ghanaian high schools would be participating in the program.

The Northern zone was represented by schools from Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Upper East and West as well as the Northern Region.

“Each school has agreed to form a robotics science club of 8-10 students and two teachers to work as a team during the workshops and to continue with robotics science studies during the course of the academic year,” he said.  “This program will inspire and energize Ghanaian high school students to pursue education and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.”

Dr Trebi-Ollennu said the workshops would also help participants connect Science theory with practice, and the equipment used during the workshops would stay at the schools to form the basic building blocks for the high school robotics science clubs.

“We will also provide each school club with a Robotics Science guidebook and additional training materials,” he promised. “We also expect that civil society and private sector partners in Ghana will support the individual high school robotics science clubs over the course of the academic year.

In addition, he indicated that a not-for-profit foundation, the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation, had been established to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education in Ghana at the junior high, high school, and college level by using the motivational effects of robotics to organize periodic hands-on workshops and competitions for schools.

Master Kweku Amankwah, a student, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that, the workshop had taught him how to programme and control robot to do certain activities.

“I have also learned about how team work can help achieve a common goal and this will help me in all my endeavours”, he said.

Source: GNA