Capricornia SDE is one of fifty schools in Australia granted funding under the Digital Literacies School Grants Program Round One. The grants are provided by the Australian Government under its National Innovation and Science Agenda. Grants have been provided for projects which ‘propose innovative methods for driving enhanced digital literacy throughout schools’.
The Capricornia SDE program continues the pilot program of 2016 involving a group of Year 5 students. Twelve Year 6 students will complete the build of the ‘CSDE Bush-Bot’, a robotic vehicle designed to show students how technology can be used in modern agriculture.
This project is being designed and lead by John McFadyen. By completing the robot build students will be introduced to electronics, computer coding and signal processing. Each student receive a purpose designed kit to complete the project at home. Support lessons are being conducted online each week to assist students with the build process and give them an opportunity to communicate their understanding of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics being used in the project.
The project is also being supported by academics of the Queensland University of Technology and the University of South Australia.