BEING the fourth school granted an opportunity to build and programme robots in the Lego Yuh Mind initiative, students from Denham Town High School waited anxiously for the day's activities.

Mathematics, science and information technology played major roles in the robot construction exercise and according to head of the Information Technology Department, Antonio Daley, the school tried to strike a balance between the number of boys and girls. However, he said "the boys are more enthusiastic about mechanical things".

His delight, for the students being given the chance to use and learn various skills, extended as far as life lessons. "I think this is very good, they were able to use technology, maths, entrepreneurship, engineering and team work, which are main ideals.

"No child seems to be bored. They can use their creative minds as they are tired of the normal everyday talking and teaching methods. Workshops like these encourage teachers to form other ideas and get students involved."

Even though some teams faced difficulties and at times became frustrated, Lego Yuh Mind director, Marvin Hall and other team members, encouraged the students to press on.

Having overcome the challenges, team #12, consisting of Sixth-Form students Matthew Danvers, Monique Duncan and Jermaine Blackburn, completed their robot first, followed by another group of Sixth-Form students, Reynaldo Davis, Janice Ledgister and Tanya White. Each completed the forward movement challenge and advancing to the curve turn challenge moments before lunch.

When asked about the strategy used, team #12 explained that while one team member went to purchase the parts, the other were busy trying to figure out how to put the pieces together, and that's what helped them to stay ahead in the game.

Hall then expressed that possibly Denham Town High has been one of the schools to quickly complete the robots, even though many of the teams had to start over because of errors. He went on to express that this school was welcoming to him and his team and that they had a good range of selected students.

He was satisfied to see the Sixth-Formers, setting the pace for the younger ones and also helped in encouraging them to complete and operate their robots.