In partnership with The Week Junior Science+Nature Magazine, Robotical hosted a “Win a Marty workshop” competition. Five lucky children were given the opportunity to take part in a coding workshop and were challenged to develop a music video in the hope of winning a Marty for their school. This competition allowed the students to develop their computational thinking by grooving with Marty.

 

The Workshop:

The workshop commenced with a fun introductory quiz on robotics, delving deep into the debate on “what is a robot” so “what is Marty”. Discussing how robotics are improving different areas of life, from healthcare to cleaning. The students were given the opportunity to test their knowledge and learn new fun facts – did you know that a washing machine is a robot?

Each student was given their own Marty for the online workshop and they certainly didn’t fail to impress with their sticker customisation. As Tanya, the workshop’s host, noted “it was brilliant to see everyone’s personality shine through their own robot”.

The students were given the opportunity to try out some movements and the games began. After all, it wouldn’t be a coding workshop without some fun games!

The students played a round of “Marty says” and then had the opportunity to develop their own remote controls. One boy was a real football enthusiast so he created a remote control to help Marty play football. Just in time for the Euros!

The kids were able to practice their coding skills and get Marty up and moving. It was no surprise that everyone’s favourite movement was Marty’s famous wiggle and circle dance.

“His favourite part of the Zoom session was when he could see all the Martys dancing.”

– Archie’s mum

Tanya noted how impressed she was at the speed the kids picked up the coding! Only one child had previous in-school experience with a programmable robot and to adapt so quickly from screen to real life was incredible.

 

The Competition:

Once the workshop ended, the students were faced with a challenge of choreographing Marty and developing their own music video. The students were given free rein to choose any song, props or moves they desired. The effort the students put in was incredible… “Julian spent days choreographing, planning, programming, staging and filming.” And it certainly paid off…

“We were so impressed at how creative everyone got with their dance routines that featured some groovy movements that were in time with the music. And all of that was done with just a week of getting to know Marty!!”

– Tanya Howden, Workshop Coordinator

 

And the Winner is…

Julian with his brilliant choreographed dance to Troublemaker.

“It was a really close call, but we loved how Julian got involved in the music video directly by copying the same movements that Marty was doing. We all wanted to get up and dance along!”

– Tanya Howden, Workshop Coordinator

A massive thank you and congratulations to everyone involved! Your creativity and coding skills did not fail to impress – keep coding!