Citywise kids set sights on All-Ireland

A TEAM of young people from Citywise Education in Jobstown have been selected as the wildcard entry in FIRST LEGO League All-Ireland National Final at the end of this month.

The team of five, aged from ten to 14, already impressed the judges at the regional competition last work where they won an innovation award for their project.

They’ve been getting to grips with robotics in recent months for the competition, with this year’s theme being ‘masterpiece’.

There are three aspects to the students’ projects, and the first section requires them to identify a problem and come up with an innovative solution in relation to the competition theme.

Liam McMahon-Buggy, STEAM officer at Citywise, told The Echo: “They decided to work on an app that will take into account someone’s learning style and personality type.

“It will then give them a course list tailored to how they learn.”

The second aspect of the project has seen the team design a robot game that complete missions using Lego, and for this, the young people have built a little forklift to carry out missions.

The third aspect centres on robot design, where the teams compile the story of their robot including how they designed, built and programmed it.

Explaining the impact that participating in the competition has on the students, Mr McMahon-Buggy said: “They develop research skills and presentation skills.

“One kid in particular was very shy and now presenting is second-nature to him.

“He’s been [taking part in the competition] for the last four years.

“Now he’s a very good speaker and presents really well.

“We also slightly touch on engineering with what we do with the robot, like weight distribution and mechanical design.”

Citywise has entered the competition every year since 2011, and Mr McMahon-Buggy took part in it himself when he was younger and he’s happy to pass on his wisdom.

“I was part of the robotics team when I was younger, and now it’s like I’m passing on the baton and teaching them everything I’ve done,” he said.

“It’s class to see them having such an interest in STEM, it was more of a niche thing when I did it.”

The team now have their sights firmly set on the All-Ireland competition in Santry at the end of this month, after being selected by LearnIt as a wildcard entry.

“They’re kind of like the underdogs because they’re one of the youngest teams,” added Mr McMahon-Buggy.

“Obviously, everyone likes to win, but I think it would mean something different to them.”