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Teachers from high schools across the Cayman Islands have received hands on training to better equip them to teach robotics and to prepare their students for robotics competitions, as well as to further promote the subject for wider inclusion in the national curriculum.

The training was delivered to 37 teachers from 13 local schools throughout 2024 by Stan Hunter, an experienced robotics teacher from Ontario, Canada, to get them more acquainted with the building and programming robots.

This is toward the goal of them being proficient enough to guide their students when participating in Minds Inspired robotics events like the FIRST Tech Challenge, an inter-school competition where students also vie for spots on the Cayman Islands National Robotics Team that competes in the FIRST Global Challenge against countries from around the world.

Minds Inspired is a Dart initiative that uses innovative and exciting programmes, activities and awards to encourage Cayman's youth to embrace science, technology, engineering and mathematics – collectively referred to as STEM subjects.

“Robotics has grown over the years since we started our Minds Inspired programmes and we are thrilled to have someone with Stan’s experience and expertise readily available to help advance robotics in the Cayman Islands,” said Glenda McTaggart, Dart’s senior manager for education programmes, who oversees Minds Inspired.

“We’re hoping to get more students into robotics to not only help prepare them for jobs of the future but so they can also make the most of their exposure through our robotics events and being more competitive at international events like FIRST Global. With the international push to make robotics an Olympic sport, the time is now to get as many young people engaged,” she added.

At a workshop in November, 26 teachers attended from Cayman International School, Cayman Prep & High School, Clifton Hunter High School, John Gray High School, Layman E. Scott High School, St Ignatius Catholic School and Triple C School. In March, 11 teachers from CF School, Cayman Academy, First Baptist Christian School and Hope Academy participated in training. In addition to training teachers, each school received VEX IQ robotics kits so teachers could roll out the junior programme right away with their students.

“The rollout across all Cayman schools is such an exciting step forward for STEM education in our community. We're hopeful that this initiative will ignite a passion for robotics and problem-solving in our students, creating a solid foundation for their future involvement in programs like FTC and perhaps even FIRST Global one day,” said Luke Grimmett, STEAM teacher at CIS.

Hunter, the Canadian teacher who conducted the training, said he is hopeful that robotics will continue to develop within schools in the Cayman Islands and not be mainly restricted to afterschool clubs and programmes. “It’s always great to have it after school but you’re always dealing with a small group of committed kids but if you can broaden that out to more students in the classroom and give kids that maybe don’t even know what it is an opportunity to experience it, it sparks the interest in some of those kids,” he said.

The next Minds Inspired robotics competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, is scheduled to take place on 22 February 2025 at Camana Bay’s Arts and Recreation Centre and schools are diligently preparing, with students eyeing places on the Cayman Islands National Robotics Team after another impressive showing by the team at FIRST Global Challenge in Greece this year.

The Minds Inspired robotics programme is made possibly by the support of the following sponsors: Aureum Re, CUC, Dart, Digicel, Health City Cayman Islands and KPMG. For more information about Minds Inspired visit: www.mindsinspired.ky.