Robots are taking over the high schools!

It’s early on a Friday morning at East Rockaway High School, and the technology shop is buzzing with activity. However, the familiar hum of band saws, and power-sanders cannot be heard. Instead, the dull roar in the classroom comes from the whine of a remote control and the chatter of students discussing how best to make their robot pick up and move objects quickly.

These students are members of the school’s high-level robotics class, which was first offered in 2012, and many are members of the school’s Robotics Club. James D’Tomaso, a science teacher at East Rockaway High School, said the district began offering robotics programs as students showed interest in the subject.

“We began integrating units on robotics, computer programming and engineering as part of our normal science classes at first, as part of our focus on STEM, Science Technology, Engineering and Math,” he explained. “Kids really responded to it, so we decided to make it a true course offering and students even formed a Robotics Club.

Members of that club compete as a team against schools from around Long Island in VEX Robotics competitions, in which students must design a robot to complete a specific task. The team has found plenty of success in this academic year.

“On December 2, we traveled to Jericho High School, where we won the tournament, and also won the excellence prize, which s an overall team award given by the judges,” said Hugh Howard, a teacher and faculty moderator of the Robotics Club. “That mean’s we’ll get to compete in the state championship competition in March, and if we are one of three teams that will there, we’ll go on to Nationals in Kentucky.”

The East Rockaway team will have an advantage over competing schools like Massapequa and Glen Cove at the state tournament in March. East Rockaway High School will host the state VEX Robotics championship, and senior and team member Mike Reichelson said he thinks his team has what it takes to move on.

“It’ll definitely be cool to host the state tournament,” Reichelson said. “I think we definitely have a great shot at winning there and moving on to the national tournament. It’s a lot of hard work, but to be able to represent your school and find success is just a really good feeling.”

Lynbrook student earns club

a 3-D Printer

Robotics fever has also caught on in Lynbrook. Lynbrook High School has its own Robotics Club, which was recently bolstered by a student’s essay.

Andrew Meersand, a junior, won a 3D-Printer for the school’s robotics club in the EKOCYCLE Cube 3D Printer, hosted by science outreach organization For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and sponsored by Coca-Cola. In his essay, Meersand told judges that the 3D printer, which is able to manufacture three-dimensional objects out of plastic quickly and cheaply, would help improve the school’s Robotics Club.

"We hope to fabricate components for our robot that we cannot normally construct using traditional products,” Meersand wrote. He also noted that the printer would enable the 40-member Robotics Club to improve the aesthetics and style of the robot, and described the ways in which the students would use recycled materials for the printer’s designs and collaborate with the high school’s Globe Club, an environmental group, to recycle the printed products.

When Meersand and his teammates found out his essay had earned the top prize, they were thrilled, said fellow junior Dylan Barrison.

“We were very excited when we found out that he had won,” Barrison said. “The fact that we would be able to make so many different components of our robot in a much easier and quick fashion was so great to here.

The printer, which is the second in use at Lynbrook High School, is already proving useful to students.

“We’ve already used it to improve our robots, both mechanically and aesthetically,” Barrison said. “We’ve built new components for our bots that are lighter, while still being just as strong, which allows them to move faster and be more agile.”

They’ve also found a way to use the printer to showcase their school pride.

“We’re designing custom components for our robots that we can use to show off a little,” Barrison said. “They’re small plastic hubcaps for the wheels of our robot that are usually just plain plastic, maybe colored a certain way. But when our bots compete their hubcaps will have our custom design on them, featuring our schools mascot, an owl.”

Lynbrook students competed in their first competition of the year on Sunday at Hewlett High School, with four teams representing the Owls. The Robochicks finished the best of the four in seventh, while LAIMO finished 14th,Task Main finished 17th and CTRL ALT WIN finished 23rd.

Meersand said he was proud to bring the new resource to Lynbrook, and he hoped it would aid the work of students now, and inspire future students.

“When I first saw the essay prompt, a quote really stuck in my head from musician Will.I.Am, of the Black Eyed Peas,” he explained. “He said ‘Most kids are not dreaming of being programmers, scientists or engineers.’ I’m hoping that with this, maybe we can show kids what kind of things they can do as scientists and get more students in Lynbrook dreaming of becoming those things.”