Thursday, October 1, 2026
Computers are commonplace in classrooms, but robots? They’re on a surprising upswing all across the Long Beach School District. STEAM programs — science, technology, engineering, arts and math — are thriving throughout the schools as fourth graders and high school students have both reached international-level competition for robotics.
Caitlin Fuentes King coaches the robotics team and teaches the LARC program — Learning Activities to Raise Creativity — at East Elementary. Earlier this year, the fourth-grade class entered the 2026 Wonder League Robotics Competition and, from a field of 8,000 teams in 65 countries, the Long Beach team ranked among the 12 percent of competitors advancing to the international round.
King, who received the 2025 Wonder League Robotics Competition Super Coach of the Year award, will lead eight teams consisting of up to five students each, as they use computer programming and coding skills to control a wheeled robot, roughly the size of a small soccer ball, across a designated 5-foot by 8-foot floormat while achieving various story-based “missions.”
One mission, for example, used an underwater theme that tasked the robot to search and retrieve “sunken artifacts” while navigating through a “magnetic storm” of obstacles. The competition takes place virtually, with competitors submitting video entries of four “missions” completed between October and mid-February for round one, and using all of March for their final mission in the international round. The winners will be announced on May 8.
“I’m there to support them,” King said. “But the students are the ones making all the decisions and problem solving.”
Not leaving the robot wrangling to younger students, the Long Beach High School robotics team, consisting of 17 students, from freshmen to seniors, have progressed from regional competition to an international field at the FIRST Robotics Competition — “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.”
The team, which captured the Rising All-Star award at the regional contest, is coached by James Johnsen, an auto and metal shop teacher at the high school, and Daniel Lerner, a robotics teacher at LBHS. The entire squad, known as “Riptide Robotics,” headed to Houston, Texas earlier this week where they will take on international competition from 600 worldwide teams.
Optimum has partnered with the FIRST competition for the past eight years, financially supporting a number of teams and providing $2,000 to the four Long Island schools which advanced to the final round this year.
“Each year, we’re amazed by the creative and groundbreaking ideas the students bring to life through this program,” said Jay Guy Vice President, General Manager of Optimum New York. “We’re extremely proud of all the teams on Long Island for their outstanding achievements this season and look forward to cheering them on at the FIRST Championship event.”
To achieve victory, Riptide Robotics — currently ranked ninth in New York State — designed, built, assembled and programmed their robot to achieve the annual task presented by contest organizers. This year, the challenge involved the robot moving around a space to collect balls before sending them into a goal. Because of the machine’s accuracy and shooting skills, the Long Beach robot was dubbed “the archerfish.”
“We’re a big robotics school,” Johnsen explained. “We’re getting better every year. We’re just trying to progress and become a better team.”
Earlier this year, Lerner was named a 2026 Distinguished Teacher by the Harvard Club of Long Island. In 2025, Johnsen was recognized by the Association of School Supervisors for Educational Technology as a 2025 Bright Light honoree.
“It really speaks volumes about Long Beach’s commitment to STEAM and robotics education across all the grade levels,” said King. “ The kind of vertical alignment from early learning all the way through high school. It really helps to create that culture of curiosity.”
