BY DAYO ADESULU
SCIENCE and technology which is the bedrock to any scientific development of any nation is taking its feat amongst Nigerian children as methods and passion to increase the interest in the subject keeps increasing by the day.

Against the backdrop, the World Robotics Olympia (WRO) national Lego robotics science competition organised by Arc light Limited was on Saturday at Oriental Hotel, Lagos won by the Ambassador School, Ile-Ife, beating other twenty-two teams contestants representing Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Lagos States who registered for the contest.

By implication, Ambassador School, as the name implies, is to represent Nigeria in a world robotic contest comes 18th-20th November 2011 at Abu Dhabi.

The aim of the contest said the Managing Director, Arc Light Limited, Mr Tayo Obasanya, is to present an opportunity to expose children to robotics science from the elementary stage and follow through to their tertiary education and beyond, making them to be mentally effective to identify and harness human capital potentials in our children.

According to Obasanya, robotics creates a unique and exciting opportunity to reinforce innovative elements of science and technology learning in primary and secondary schools adding that  robotics programme in private and public schools will create another opportunity to harness science and technology, competence and innovation to empower people, business and our society.

Explaining its importance, he noted that robotic challenges build innovation, creativity and problem solving skills in students, and because robotics cross multiple curriculum subjects, students learn and apply their knowledge in science, engineering, Mathematics, and computer programming.

He pointed out that the annual robotics competition seeks to provide promising students with an opportunity to expand their horizons through exploration of robots and robotic systems saying ”It will present an opportunity to promote creative thinking, improve communication and cooperation skills and strengthen the ability to acquire new knowledge highly relevant towards progressive education thereby broadening the youth’s view in the application of information and communication technology, improve their learning efficiency and encourage them to be future scientists, engineers and inventors.

World Robotics Olympia (WRO) he said has been building this learning platform for 7 years now, noting that the first robotics competition was in 2004 where 12 countries and 4,000 teams participated. “However, this year, over 35 countries and over 13,000 teams from around the world are taking part in WRO activities in local, regional, and national competitions,”  he said.