Just So Festival 2019: The Ultimate Sphero Challenge

This year we were pleased to be invited back to Just So Festival to inspire young people and get them thinking about future digital skills.

Following the success of last year, we were looking forward to engaging with more young people so they might consider the benefits of making and digital skills. We spoke with young people about coding and programming and enlisted the help of our trusty spheros to do the job as well as the support of three of our excellent ambassadors.

The people behind Just So Festival were kind enough to give us space to set up a specially designed sphero challenge. Once ready, we had the chance to invite festival-goers to come in and have a go navigating miniature robots around our course.

 
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As people joined in, we were able to talk to young people and their families about coding and how this useful skill has an influence on technology now and in the future. After we explained some of the basic principles, participants had the chance to put theory into practice and see how a ‘computer’s language’ affected the robots in front of them.

 
 

People seemed to enjoy the challenge, and we engaged with 50 young people, their families and friends. Learners left the workshop with a better understanding of coding and programming and the inspiration to see what else they could code and how they could pursue this digital skill further in the future.

We want to extend a very special thank you to the Just So Festival for inviting us back and hope we can take part again in the future.

Mary Fletcher