There are 1285 students at St Clement Danes and three robots. But the hi tech four foot tall build-your-own robots, or Meccanoid, as they are called are more like the teachers than pupils.
They have been bought for the school by the Parents’ Association and have a mission, to help students grasp the basics of computer systems, stimulate their creativity and imagination and encourage them to enjoy engineering.
‘The Meccanoid will get kids building and programming “ says Ben Varadi, Vice President and Chief Creative Officer for Canadian Toy company Spin Master who own Meccano.
The robot uses voice recognition to respond to instructions and can deal with 1000s of phrases including questions and fun facts and, perhaps, most disconcerting, can copy movement (There are pre-programmed moves including Kung Fu, exercise, dance and even high fives ).
SCD is believed to be the first school to use Meccanoid in the classroom.
“Using the robot’s Learned Intelligent Movement technology and the mobile app we can show how he can be programmed to carry out the repetitive action” says Carl Taylor of SCD Computing Department.
“ It will also develop the idea of computational thinking and algorithms. For example there is a need to produce a set of accurate instructions in the correct order or he won’t produce the result you expect.”
The Meccanoid is not restricted for use by the Lower School only and will soon be part of Year 13 A Level Psychology lessons where students will use them to look at independent versus pre-determined actions!
But it’s not all serious business
“ It can tell jokes, start conversations and even remember your name and birthday” adds Ben Varadi
Meccano has been the King of mechanical kits since 1898. 117 years on the Meccanoids are almost as smart as the humans who piece them together. Well, maybe not quite as switched on as the man who said his Meccano set influenced his whole career, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Meccanoid is available from Maplin and Toys R Us £169.99 / £349.99 www.meccano.com