Robotics and coding skills are becoming necessities in rural schools wanting to improve the future employment opportunities for their students.
While fellow classmates run around the schoolyard during lunchtime, 11-year-old Katelyn Peters and her friends are busy tinkering away with programming robots.
For her it is not only a fun hobby, she is confident it will lead to future employment opportunities.
"I'd like to do it in the future, as most jobs that are going to be part of the future are going to contain robotics and engineering," the year 6 student said.
She is part of Mullion Creek Public School's all-girl team which recently competed in the Robocup Junior Australia competition in Melbourne.
They took home the trophy for their rodeo-themed project Ready Steady Ride, despite being the only primary school team in the experienced performance division.
Fellow teammate Anna Martin said the challenge taught them valuable skills including teamwork, persistence, and problem solving.
"You have to think outside the square and come up with new creative ideas," she said.
Full STEAM ahead
The students' school in drought-stricken central western New South Wales has integrated STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) in all classes from kindergarten through to year 6.
In addition to including a robotics program into its curriculum, the school has budgeted to allow every one of its 55 students to access a laptop and tablet device.
That type of resourcing could only exist with support from the school's principal and additional fundraising efforts by its parents and citizens committee, teacher Sharon Cloete said.
"If you do not have that backing of leadership, who sees the value of 21st century learning, it's going to be really difficult to implement that in the classroom," Ms Cloete said.
Robotics in the library
For some students the enthusiasm for learning robotics extends beyond the school classroom.
Many public libraries hold free after-school tutorials in robot building, programming, and computer graphics modelling.
The Orange City Library's Code Club events are often booked out and tutorials have tripled since they began three years ago.
Library assistant Rebekah Salmon said it was a challenge to learn the initial skills to teach the young students, but now it comes naturally.
"I hadn't done any coding myself when I started but it really captured my imagination immediately. I found I became quite obsessed with it," Ms Salmon said.
She said the lessons are part of the venue's commitment to offer digital literacy skills to a broad section of the community.
"Libraries are really changing. We're trying to provide the information to people that they need and they want and maybe they can't get in other places," she said.
Future demand for AI skills
Australia will need an estimated 161,000 artificial intelligence specialists by 2030, said information technology Professor Hussein Abbass from UNSW Canberra.
Professor Abbass said a community-wide effort by governments, schools, and skilled volunteers, along with adequate funding, is necessary to steer young minds towards robotics.
"Without embedding these skills in our schools and early childhood education it would be quite difficult to expect that the children will develop the skills at a later stage and excel in delivering what the society demands in this domain," he said.
"There is no industry in the future that will not be using robotics."
Professor Abbass said parents need to inspire their children to have an interest in the field, otherwise they will be left behind in the future economy.
"Find out what excites them to get them into the robotic domain because it is going to be a skill for life," he said.
