School holiday programme building robots, chariots at Tonui Collab

ZINE CREW: From left, Faye Kerehoma, Henarata Pishief, Amy Adcock, Sofia Newman, Malea Procter, Josiah Goddard, Te Waiotu Fairlie, Mokoia Kerehoma and Adriana Hoogland in the press hall at The Gisborne Herald to see where issue one of Loose Leaf Zine was printed.Picture by Paul Rickard

The Tōnui Collab team have planned a holiday programme inviting tamariki to experiment with a wide range of technologies.

On the first day of the school holidays yesterday was a Sphero Robotics workshop,

A total of 20 tamariki attended for the morning and learned how to program sphere-shaped robots and designed and built chariots for the robots.

They tested their constructions in races, battles, and games of robotic football.

“Robotics are a great tool for tamariki to explore all the STEM subjects — science, technology, engineering and maths — and they are a perfect tool for tamariki to practise collaborative problem-finding and then problem-solving,” Tōnui Collab director Shanon O’Connor said.

“Tamariki are encouraged to regularly test their builds, identify failings such as weak construction, and make improvements. The lessons they learn from this iterative design process can be transferred to other areas of learning.”

Tōnui Collab has morning workshops every day of the school holidays and no workshop is ever the same. Upcoming workshops include virtual reality, game development, music engineering, animation, and 3D modelling.

“I love the diversity of workshops we run here. They create opportunities for all tamariki to be challenged and to have their skills validated and celebrated, said Mac Burgess, edtech innovator at Collab.

The Tōnui Collab Charitable Trust is supported by Trust Tairawhiti to create equitable and accessible STEM learning opportunities, working with school groups from primary to secondary during the term, as well as running after school and holiday programmes.