#HighPeakYouthRobotics
High Peak Youth Robotics 2024/2025
Youth Group
We have set-up a new youth group to enable some local young people to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge, a national robotics competition. You can find out about the Challenge on the FIRST website here.
The main objective of the project is to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge regional competition event in March 2025.
We will host weekly, term-time workshops between September 2024 and April 2025 during which the group will work towards this.
The workshops are delivered by members of the Funny Wonders team, led by Dave Lydford. Dave also runs the FIRST LEGO League at Brick Corner for younger participants. Activities will also be supported by a range of local engineers who will come and offer advice and support to the group.
Thanks
The first year of High Peak Youth Robotics club has been made possible through funding from Herefordshire Community Foundation (Joanies Fund) plus further grants and donations from Buxton4Youth, Tarmac, Timpson, High Peak Mayoral Charity (Buxton & District) and Otter Controls Ltd. We are also in receipt of a bursary from FIRST to enable us to participate.
Participants
A Challenge team can consist of up to 15 people.
It is open to all young people in the High Peak, but we would particularly like to welcome those with neurodiversity, those who are home-educated or not in education or those who experience barriers to accessing (or enjoying) STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects in their traditional form whilst at school. We also aim to have 50:50 split of boys and girls.
Workshops
The workshops take place on term-time Tuesday evenings, 6pm to 7.30pm in the Lower Room at Buxton Methodist Church – the church on the Market Place (SK17 6XN).
The venue and room is wheelchair accessible via the door on Fountain Street and has an accessible toilet on the same level.
Workshops are free to attend. There may be fees or fundraising required for additional activities or if the team gets through to the national finals(!).
Safeguarding
Funny Wonders has a comprehensive Safeguarding Policy and working procedures. All members of the delivery team undergo enhanced DBS checks and safeguarding awareness training. All activities and venues are risk-assessed with mental health and wellbeing, physical safety, data privacy and environmental impact all considered.
Sign Up
Our team is now full for the 2024/2025 year. If you would like to join a waitlist, should any spaces open up, please email highpeakyouthrobotics@funnywonders.org.uk.
Sign Up
If you would like to register a young person for the youth club, please complete the form below.
The questions are designed to provide us with logistical information, to ensure we are reaching our target group (as per the grant funding we have obtained to deliver the project) and to ensure we have a diverse group of young people.
We will let you know as soon as possible if a place is available for your young person.
The information you provide will be used and held in accordance with our Data Protection & Confidentiality Policy and will not be shared. By completing the form, your consent for us to collect your data is implied. You can find our full Privacy Statement on our Policy & Procedure page here.
***UPDATE*** There are only a couple of places remaining and these are open to girls only.
Workshops
Workshops activities so far include: teamwork puzzles, design, learning about the challenge – what we need the robot to be able to do (and the many, many rules!), unboxing the robotics kit, setting up the laptop with the comms/coding software, building the robot base and getting the robot base to speak to the control unit. We also had a visit from a FIRST representive who answered some of our questions.
