Published November 29, 2019
When Peggy Mangovski signed up to
become a Pitsco Robotics Certified Educator,
she did so with a definite purpose in mind. As
the project and diversity leader for the STEM Industry in Schools Partnership (SISP) in New South Wales, Australia, Mangovski is heading up a new initiative centered around robotics in mining careers.
“SISP has partnered with Pitsco and Kookaburra
Educational Resources to design and develop
a robotics competition and curriculum based
on mining sustainability and rehabilitation,” she
explained. “Mining is a big industry in Australia,
but with growing environmental concerns,
we knew it was important to find a way to use
technology to solve big problems around planet
health and people safety.”
Knowing that if she were to lead this new
program centered around robotics in mining
careers she would need to know everything
she could about robotics and coding, Mangovski,
also the head STEM teacher for the Cessnock
Academy of STEM Excellence (CASE), signed
up for a Pitsco Robotics Certified Educator
event held in Australia in June 2019. She was
so motivated by the TETRIX® training, she
immediately tried it out with her students. After
recording her students working with TETRIX and
sharing her results on social media, she wrapped
up her certification and earned the title of the
world’s first Pitsco Robotics Certified Educator.
“The TETRIX training gave me the time to
experiment,” she said. “It also gave me an idea of
where students might get stuck with problems,
so I could prepare for teachable moments.”
MINING IN AUSTRALIA
As the world’s largest exporter of iron ore
and coal, and the second-largest exporter of
gold, Australia’s mining industry plays a huge
part in the country’s economy (“Mining in
Australia: Everything You Need to Know”). As
with other industries, it is dependent upon a
steady workforce for continued success. The
growing field of mining rehabilitation, which
includes both the improvement of current
mines as well as the repurposing of previously
mined lands, opens even more doors for STEM
students interested in a range of disciplines,
from agriculture and environmental science to
technology and robotics.
At the 2019 Mined Land Rehabilitation
Conference in June, where Kookaburra and
SISP had set up a TETRIX MAX Competition in a Box, SISP Project Lead Dr. Scott Sleap spoke
to the importance of connecting classroom learning to mining careers. “At the moment, a
large number of our students are not taking on
the prerequisite subjects of STEM so they can
get involved in these professions,” he said. “So,
what we’re doing is we’re getting our young
people to learn about these types of skills using
robotics, using teamwork, using a whole range
of what we call our technical, or soft skills, to
develop the type of individual that is going to
be our next generation of problem solver and
environmental and scientific engineer.”
DIGGING IN
Introducing students to – and training them
in – these skills is the goal of the Mined Land
Rehabilitation Challenge, a competition and
curriculum program aimed at bringing attention
to the mined land restoration work going on in
Australia as well as increasing awareness among
students of STEM careers available in the industry.
“The competition is based on an open cut
mine from the Hunter Valley, with students
designing robots based on sustainable
environmental challenges,” said Mangovski. “It
involves designing robotic systems that plant
different types of vegetation safely on a mine
rehabilitation site and avoids hazards such as
water and voids. Students will need to design
a robotic system using the TETRIX MAX or
PRIME kits to solve real-world problems with an
environmental science and agritech focus.”
For now, SISP is starting with regional events.
SISP STEM project officers will lead competitions
in five different regions of New South Wales, with
the first challenge being held in the Mid North
Coast. Simultaneously, Mangovski and colleagues
Jeff Appleby and Ian Preston – also Pitsco Robotics
Certified Educators – are working with TETRIX kits
to create challenges for the surrounding learning
communities. “As the diversity leader for SISP, I
have been assisting in the coordination of the
challenge structure and liaising with our industry
liaison officer to develop a competition-in-the-box-
style solution that will allow more remote and
rural schools to participate in the challenge at a
time that suits them,” Mangovski explained. She
will also be coordinating a culminating challenge
for students in the Cessnock, Lake Macquarie, and
Muswellbrook communities.
Soon, though, they hope to have the main
challenge up and running. “For our Mined Land
Rehabilitation Challenge, Jeff Appleby and I
are collaborating on a cross-regional challenge
that will take place next year in partnership
with local universities,” said Mangovski. “This
event will feature a satellite connect option
to allow other regional and remote schools to
participate. . . . In the lead-up to the challenge,
students will be participating in school-based
mini challenges this year to improve their
robotics, coding, and design skills.”
But the hopes for TETRIX lessons go beyond
the mining industry. Preston, for example, is
considering competitions and curriculum that
delve even deeper into agriculture. “My area in
New South Wales, the Riverina, is a ‘food bowl’ of
agriculture,” he explained. “So, I’ll be looking at
using TETRIX perhaps in an agritech focus, as the
platform can be adapted to several scenarios.”
The dream is to see these new challenges
grow beyond Australia. “We hope our
competition and learning programs will expand
globally and bring attention to the incredible
and innovative work in Australia around mined
land restoration,” said Mangovski.