Team Delite of Menglait Secondary School, Gadong was crowned the champion in the Maqueen Category – Secondary School Level of the pilot project ‘Coding with Smart Devices for Government Schools’ final competition prize presentation ceremony at Raja Isteri Girls High School (STPRI) yesterday.
Team Robotech also from Menglait Secondary School was placed second while Team Ranch of Tanjong Maya Secondary School, Tutong came third.
Meanwhile, for the Ring:bit Category – Primary School Level, Team Kembayau of Rimba III Primary School won first place, while the second and third place went to Team NetZen of Katok ‘A’ Primary School and Microkids of Mabohai Primary School.
Legislative Council member and Penghulu of Mukim Bukit Sawat Yang Berhormat Haji Mohd Salleh bin Haji Othman, the guest of honour, presented the prizes and observed the demonstrations of smart devices created by the winners and participants.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) through the Curriculum Development Department in collaboration with the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI) organised the event.
AITI Chief Executive Ir Haji Jailani bin Haji Buntar said, “Coding and computational thinking are integral skills in line with the digital era enabling students to conceptualise and make use of computer technology to solve problems.
“Such skills allow the country to produce a skilled workforce among software developers, artificial intelligence engineers, robotics engineers, and data scientists needed in current and future markets.”
Curriculum Development Department Director Ali Hamdani bin Haji Muhammad Diah, senior officers and school leaders were also in attendance.
The project began in July last year, involving 35 teachers and 195 students from Years 4,
5, 7 and 8 from four government primary and four secondary schools. Competitions were held at the end of the project to evaluate the student’s understanding by incorporating the use of smart devices through learning.
Twelve groups from the primary schools and another 12 from the secondary schools competed in the final round.
The project is an initiative by MoE and AITI, to improve coding skills and computational thinking through learning using smart devices, specifically Bee-Bot and Micro:bit. – James Kon
