8 Ghanaian students for global robotics competition
Eight students from the RisingSun Montessori School at Dome in Accra will be representing Ghana at this year’s VEX Worlds Global Robotics Competition Championship, Elementary Middle School Division in Dallas, Texas, USA from April 25 -May 4.
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Under team name, BountiBot- GH10, the students are Oppong Kyekyeku Edomgbole, Nkunim Kweku Akuamoah, Michelle Ohemaa Nuerkie Nuertey, Makayla Miravis Menyah, Francis Kofi Amoako, Yaw Omari Dankwah, Papa Yaw Kyei Peprah and Nathaniel Roy Bassaw.
VEX Worlds Robotics Competition is the largest educational robotics and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) competition in the world that fosters skills and helps students create identity as STEM learners.
It also exposes students to valuable soft skills such as communication, collaboration and time management in a fun and authentic way.
Commendation
Speaking to the Daily Graphic about the feat, the Director of RisingSun Montessori School, Patrick Acheampong, commended the team for a job well done and encouraged parents to allow their children to go for it and he stressed saying, “as parents, let's get involved”.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bountiful Technologies Company Limited, who are partners of VEX Robotics, Seth Ogoe Ayim, stated that in an ever-changing increasingly complex world, it was more important that the youth had the knowledge and skills to solve problems, gather and evaluate evidence to make decisions.
Additionally, he said it was their goal to harness the skills of students through their programmes in order to match up with what college and employers needed.
"To foster project-based learning, critical thinking, collaboration, perseverance, communication, inclusion and learning from failure though iteration are needed,” Mr Ayim noted.
Winning
Mr Ayim was optimistic that the students would make Ghana proud at the championship.
“Ghanaian students have worked tirelessly with their coaches, parents and their school teachers during competition seasons and are expected to compete with their counterpart teams from other countries across the Globe to bring the overall championship trophy and medals to Ghana,” he said.
On how the selections were made in Ghana, he explained that together with Bountiful STEM Educational Foundation, also a local partner of VEX Robotics and REC Foundation, a national STEM robotics competition was held annually among partner schools across the country, of which the RisingSun Montessori School was part.
“This is the first time an African and Ghanaian middle school students’ team has qualified for the championship,” he noted.
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