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| “Yes, I can do it!”
exclaimed 11-year-old Jared Chionh from Anderson Primary after
successfully debugging a program his group had created - a simple
algorithm to enable a sliding door to open and close upon sensing
a presence. |
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| Principal Mr Foo leading his students
in tree planting during Clean and Green Day last
year. |
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JARED WAS one of a hundred pupils from five
N6 Cluster primary schools who participated in the first-ever
Mechatronics Camp, held at Yio Chu Kang Secondary School (YCKSS)
on 18 and 19 November 2003.
Jointly organised by YCKSS’s Science and Design and Technology
Departments, the camp is part of the schools’ Mechatronics
Programme, conceived at the start of 2003 to provide value-added
education in an IT-integrated learning environment, and to promote
inquiry-based learning and fun science in a meaningful way.
At the camp, pupils were introduced to the fundamentals of engineering
and its applications in daily life, like the sliding doors of
a lift and toilet hand dryer. The teachers taught the participants
process skills, such as investigative and deductive questioning
techniques, that are useful in everyday life.
The teachers also designed a special set of cards called “process
cards” to help the pupils translate their thinking process
to the language of the CoreChart computer programme, an icon-based
development tool for the programming of microcontrollers. Through
simplifying the instruction and demands of programming by using
the cards, the pupils could assemble sequences for the functions
of various applications, such as programming a conveyor belt
to move when a button is pressed or when a presence is sensed.
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| Pupils watching in anxious anticipation
to see if their buggy would stay within the designated
perimeter. |
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Pivotal to the camp’s success was a group of student leaders
from YCKSS. Having been equipped with the relevant skills and
knowledge pertaining to process skills and programming, they
assisted the teachers during the camp and helped to facilitate
thinking and reflection among the camp participants.
“I learnt lots of things at the Mechatronics Camp,”
said 11-year-old Stella Tai from Ang Mo Kio Primary School.
“What I admired most was the way we were taught. I am
looking forward to the next camp.”
Contributed
by the Science and Design and Technology Departments, Yio Chu
Kang Secondary School
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