Investigating the role of machines in our future – a Changemakers Project
Throughout March 2026, Cymru Global worked with year five students and teachers to investigate the role of robots in our future. Organised in partnership between animation company Turnip Starfish, Roath Park Primary School and Cymru Global, the bilingual project took the form of a series of workshops that supported young people in imagining the future and then developing their own perspectives on the issues that will affect it. The project was part of the British Council’s Changemakers project, which empowers students in Wales to focus on projects that tackle global citizenship and sustainable education. If you would like to find out more about global citizenship and sustainable education, take a look here. If you would like to find out more about changemakers do contact us on learning@cymru.global
Students at Roath Park primary were engaging in a topic called Beyond, which uses pupil voice to investigate a wide variety of ideas and learning each year, in line with the purposes and principles of the Curriculum for Wales. Students in this year’s Beyond topic engaged with learning on Beyond Space and Beyond Words before asking what life would be like Beyond our time.
Working collaboratively, teachers Chloe Owen and James Loizos developed ideas with Cymru Global’s Head of Global Learning, Amber Demetrius, to create a project that both empowered students to tackle topics around global citizenship education and also met the needs of the students and the school.
It was about getting the balance right. For us, the project had a focus on global citizenship and sustainability. For the students, it was about the future and technology. For the school, it was about giving the kind of skills they might not get elsewhere in the classroom. What was great about Roath Park was their openness to investigate lots of innovative projects and their preparedness to do things differently. (Amber Demetrius, Head of Global Learning)
During the initial workshops, students enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on the future and ask themselves how they, their lives and their lifestyles might change.
It was so interesting seeing how they saw things. You forget how your experience colours how you see things. (Chloe Owen, Teacher at RPPS)
After exploring the future more generally, students began reflecting on the role of Artificial Intelligence in their day to day lives. Many spoke about their relationships with in-home data services including voice activation, television and music streaming services. Working with in-class debates, students developed a sense of whether this was a good or bad thing and how to guard against the dangers of online information sharing.
Using all this information, young people designed their own robots and turned these into animations with partners Turnip Starfish.
The robot design was my favourite part. It let me get really creative in demonstrating what I’d learned about artificial intelligence and also to learn skills like stop animation, which would never had been possible outside of the classroom. (student Clementine reflects on her experience in the robot workshops)
The summer Changemakers conference will offer our young people (along with three other groups of Changemakers ranging from ages 8 to 18) a chance to speak about their work, attend new workshops and connect to other empowered young people. If you can’t wait until then, however, you can always take a look at the video they made here