Monday, February 22, 2010
The Liberty team is still looking for additional adult mentors.
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A WIRING LESSON: Teacher adviser Gordon Powell, far right, shows the Liberty High School robotics team how to run wire through drilled holes. Team members watching, from center going counterclockwise, are: Carter Brady, 15; Nate Purnell, 17; Steve Struble, 16; Rick Palmer, 15; and Adam Clare, 14.
LIBERTY — Liberty High School’s robotics team is getting help from a long-time Liberty sports rival.
“They call it ‘gracious professionalism,’” said Donna Blystone, math teacher, who advises the team along with science teacher Gordon Powell.
Liberty, new to the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition, was mentored its first season in 2009 by Girard High School’s team, which continues this year. Liberty also is getting help from the team at Warren G. Harding High School, where they are building the remote-controlled machine. Liberty doesn’t have an industrial arts classroom or tools for the project, so Harding is providing that help. “I think half of my garage is there,” Powell said of the equipment it takes to assemble the machine robot.
Blystone said Judy Barber, an adviser to the Girard team, told her other teams could help Liberty get started and there was a spirit of cooperation among teams in the North East Ohio FIRST Robotics Alliance, which now includes eight area high schools. Blystone pointed out that though schools may be competitors in sports, in robotics, experienced teams are willing to help novices.
About three years ago, Blystone and Powell and two students attended a robotics event in Pittsburgh. “It was phenomenal, awesome experience,” Blystone said. Blystone made some calls to get information on the local teams and eventually heard from Barber, who offered Girard’s help.
Liberty is in its second year of competition, and the 15-member team of students in ninth- through 12th grades is called Shazbots, an expression from the “Mork and Mindy” TV show of the 1970s.
Blystone said the students call the team the “robot family” and they’re taking baby steps as the team’s experience and foundation evolves. “Kids who didn’t know each other, now talk all the time,” she said. “They work side by side,” she said of the project’s subtle benefits.
Powell said that “curiosity” brought most of the students to the robotics team, which is challenged by “limited skills” in using tools and assembling pieces. “But it’s a great hands-on project,” Powell said, adding that students are learning on the job. He said students are learning slowly how to translate their ideas to reality.
Powell said he hoped to “build excitement” among students but the project runs on “parental support.” That’s because the robotics team works on the project after school and weekends.
The Shazbots need adult mentors. “It’s a long-term process to build a team,” Powell said. Retirees with such skills as mechanical engineering, machining, computer programming, public relations are needed as volunteers. “We’re looking for adults who like to tinker and have time,” Blystone said. Anyone interested should contact Blystone or Powell at the high school, (330) 759-2301.
Blystone and Powell said they see the potential in the robotics activity, which takes the classroom into the real world. They also hope to see a curriculum offering classes in design, engineering and computer-aided drafting. Students could put skills learned in the classroom to practical use on the robotics team. “It would be an application of what they learn and validate the education,” Powell said.
Kaitlyn Maurer and Kayla Boulton, both 18 and seniors, joined the team because the project sounded exciting. “It gives you the opportunity to work with advanced technology,” Kayla said. “I’ve learned about engineering,” Kaitlyn said. “It’s definitely an education.”
Carter Brady, 15, a freshman, said, “I know a lot more about technology than I did last year.” He’s interested in commercial advertising as a career and the project helped him see the business side.
Other team members are Chris Adler, Tre’Von Cato, Marquis Cheatham, Adam Clare, Robert Ford, Michael Goransson, Mike Mrosko, Jared Newman, Rick Palmer, Nate Purnell, Steve Struble and Ashley Williams.
SEE ALSO: Seasoned Robo Cats of Girard High build multiple skills