Ly Tran is giving primary school students riddles so they can code their Sphero robots. A riddle about ‘farmers’ and ‘cows’ might mean the students have to code their robot to find the farmers’ market on a large map on the ground.

Ly, a Year 10 student at Canley Vale High School on Darug land, is one of 11 secondary students acting as facilitators and adjudicators at the third Digital Olympics, conceived and run by her school for five feeder public primary schools.

It’s a High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) opportunity for the 125 primary school students and an important step in the primary school students’ transition to high school.

At Canley Vale High’s iSTEM program, Ly is designing an automated self-blooming lamp where LED coloured petals open and close. A classmate has built a 3D electric bike, others are working on hydraulics, levers, coding for automation and 3D design and printing.

These are students who routinely use computational thinking and software to design and build, explore and solve problems.

Through the Digital Olympics for the Fairfield network of schools, they are passing this knowledge on to Year 5 and 6 students and ensuring there is no disconnect in technology learning when the younger students start high school.

Canley Vale High School Deputy Principal Aaron Trumble started the Digital Olympics in 2019, only to see it disrupted by COVID-19 for a few years.

“It sets up the primary students to transfer their skill set and know the fundamentals of computational thinking when they start high school,” he said. “It puts us all on the same page.”

The Industrial Arts trained teacher “with a passion for engineering” has helped the feeder primary schools – Canley Vale, Canley Heights, Lansvale, Prairievale and William Stimson public schools – get kitted out with robots, programmable micro:bits, coding technology and professional development opportunities.

At the Digital Olympics students compete as individuals or in groups in events ranging from using Adobe Express to create a 15-second animation; competing with Sphero robots in golf or finding their way through mazes, using micro:bits for block coding challenges and designing a Minecraft world to meet a given brief, such as farming, community or renewable energy.

Another Canley Vale High School adjudicator Jack Ky is running the Tinkercad workshop outlining the fundamentals of design on the web app for 3D design, electronics and coding. Students also work on a 3D keytag of the Digital Olympics logo with their name, which will be printed by the high school.

“It helps the students get familiar with technology and fosters knowledge about design with the Tinkercad software,” Jack said.

“Students get to collaborate and help other students; and it really builds a sense of community.”

When students start at Canley Vale High School they will use Spheros in Years 7 to 12, micro:bits from Years 7 to 10 and Tinkercad in Years 7 and 8.

Prairievale teacher Christine Alderson said many of her students were really into technology, which is obvious as they concentrate intently.

“They are super engaged in the Digital Olympics,” she said.

The Digital Olympics on 6 November at Fairfield RSL was supported by industry partners HP, Adobe and Sphero.