Murrumbidgee Regional High School

Excellence and Innovation

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Year 9 IST Make The Trains Run On Time

Year 9 IST

Year 9 IST (Information and Software Technology) have been using their IT know-how to make the trains run on time.

Using the Intelino Smart Train set, the students were tasked with creating a track for their trains and then programming them to respond to several stimuli. Markers on the track could tell the train to stop, slow down, speed up or change direction. The trains can also detect wagons and hitch them to the train using magnets.

The trains were programmed using block code, a simplified version of the Python programming language. They were controlled using an app downloaded onto the students' phones.

“The students are learning valuable programming skills from these exercises,” explains Year 9 IST teacher Jenny Chong, “The future will see artificial intelligence replace many human jobs like driving. Coding these toys uses the same basic principles as programming a self-driving car.”

The students will continue to explore artificial intelligence and programming with the Codey Rocky robots in the coming weeks.