Driving the Wheels of Innovation

Last week a group of Prep pupils (current and former!) held a very special development meeting.  

 Last year, a group of children in Years 5 and 6 worked on repairing and then upgrading the Rugged Robot outdoor rovers as a co-curricular Innovation Pioneers project, making use of their 3D design and 3D printing skills (as well as a lot of measuring, negotiating, patience and learning from mistakes!). Once they had added caterpillar tracks to make it climb steeper hills, then paddles to make it amphibious, we got back in touch with TTS Education Supplies, who made the robot and supplied the files, to tell them about it. They were so impressed that they agreed to arrange a meeting between the children (one of whom is now in First Year at the senior school), their Head of Product Development and the Lead Designer on the Rugged Robot project, who got together with the team to ask each other questions about the design process. 

The TTS team were delighted to hear about how the children had gone about the process and to hear all their ideas for future developments. In return, they answered questions about how a product goes from an idea to a classroom. Finally, they revealed that, inspired by the children’s modifications, they were working on a new generation of the Rugged Robot, intended to be modifiable from the outset and invited the children to be part of the testing and development of prototypes once they are ready.  

A fantastic example of innovation in action and skills for life!