On 1^st & 2^nd November this year, 25 primary school students from Mt Druitt Public School and 26 secondary school students from Glenmore Park HS and Erskine Park HS had the opportunity to be immersed in the world of robotics and computer science while visiting Amazon’s enormous fulfilment centre in Kemps Creek, the largest warehouse of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, covering floor space equal to 24 rugby fields.

The students began with a tour of the warehouse to see how 2000 people and hundreds of robots work together to process, pack and deliver millions of items ordered online by customers.  The students then took part in an on-site classroom activity where they learned how to code Lego robots to perform tasks similar to what they saw robots doing in the warehouse. They also had the opportunity to hear Amazon staff explain what they do in their job and how they got there and to take part in Q&A conversations.

Written secondary student feedback on Day 2 revealed that before the event, only 13% of students said they knew a lot about how robots are used in the real life and 38% said they didn’t know much.Folowing the event, 75% of students said they now know a lot about how robots are used in the real life and 25% of students said they are now better informed.

Before the event, 50% of students said they knew little about employment opportunities in a large warehouse and after the event, 88% of students knew a lot more.

 One teacher attending made the following comments:

Thankyou so much for giving our school the opportunity to participate in this excursion. Our school has just started a coding club so it came at the perfect time! The tour allowed students to activate prior learning and apply it to real life contexts. The robotics activities were hands-on and students were excited to get creative and explore the potential of technology to solve problems.

Teachers were able to learn a lot too, and the day gave insight into how coding and technology can be applied across the curriculum to boost student engagement and prepare students for a forever-evolving future. I would recommend this event to any school who are interested in starting to explore coding, as well as any school that wants to further enrich existing programs!

Many thanks to the passionate Amazon team who used their time and resources to make these pilot events such a great success in collaboration with the ITF Australia team. Many thanks also to Kerry and her team from Build A Mind who prepared and facilitated the Lego Robotic activities. Based on what has been learned this year, further opportunities of this nature will be offered to more school students in future years both in Sydney and interstate.