It’s all about team and their future

Though the Woodmere Middle School First Lego League (FLL) robotics team finished first at this year’s Long Island championship, created a free App they call “Meat Calculator,” and showed off a robot the team built, they believe working together and learning new technology is more important than winning.

Nearly all of the 12 teammates said that it feels great to win, but working together as a team means more to them. “It’s good to win but it’s not the only option here,” said sixth-grader Paul Ledon. “The point of FLL is to guide us into our future. We’re learning about new technology so we can have a good

job someday.”

The “Meat Calculator” App informs a person how to cook a particular meat, at what temperature and for how long. Creation of this app was in line with the annual theme at the First Lego League robotics competition which was “Food Factor: Keeping Food Safe.”

George Atsidaftis, Nate Roblin, Matthew Panzer, Jason Rodolitz, Daniel Kostovetsky, Ahad Ansari, Nick Zumba, Lenny Khazan, Ledon, CJ Pritzer and Evan Panzer accompanied by their advisor, Susan Suriano, competed at Longwood High School in Middle Island on March 3.

The FLL team determined such an app, whose calculations are based on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s standards, would prevent against diseases one could be infected with when eating meat that is not properly cooked. “There are so many diseases like salmonella that someone can get from eating undercooked meat,” seventh-grader Ansari said. “We wanted to find a solution for it.”

According to Rodolitz, teammates Khazan and Matthew were the masterminds behind the “Meat Calculator” App as they have created Apps before. “The app has been available for the past one month and one week,” seventh-grader Khazan said. “We’ve gotten 1,600 downloads in 49 countries.”

Atsidaftis said he hopes the convenience of the app allows more people to use it. “It will benefit a lot of people because it will help them achieve the hardest part of cooking the meat,” he said. “There are so many people who have iPods, iPhones, and iPads so it will be easier for them to get the information if they have the devices already.”

Seeing the final product was another great achievement, according to Evan. “Us winning proves that our hard work can come together,” he said. “We know we’re a good team we just realized we could accomplish something together.”

Suriano has been the FLL club advisor since its inception at Woodmere Middle School three years ago. “I’m extremely proud of all of them and they’ve learned a lot while working together,” she said. “Their enthusiasm is wonderful. They’ve already begun talked about what they want to do for next year’s competition.”

While the majority of the FLL is team is in sixth and seventh grade and will be returning to the club next year, Panzer is the only eighth-grader and is looking forward to joining Hewlett High School’s robotics team next year. “This team will help me accomplish greater goals in the high school,” he said.

To access use of the Meat Calculator App visit www.meatculculator.webs.com