Student robots to compete

FIRST aims to inspire interest in science

ELE is on the way to the game of her career. Whether she succeeds or fails, ELE -- and her counterparts at three additional high schools -- taught students valuable skills.

ELE is an athlete, but one more associated with the futuristic cartoon family, the Jetsons, than the Lakers. She's a 98-pound robot built by the FIRST team at Cimarron-Memorial as their entrance into the FIRST Robotics Regional Competition in Los Angeles April 4-6.

FIRST is a worldwide program geared to inspire high school interest in science and technology. This year, there will be 17 competitions which will reach more than 20,000 students. Approximately 600 teams will come from Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom and virtually every U.S. state.

The competition also pairs local engineers with students as mentors and guides for the design and construction of the robots. Palo Verde, Clark and Advanced Technologies Academy high schools will also participate in the contest.

The robots were built to pull, grab and push metal basket-like goals into scoring zones and put soccer balls into them in basketball fashion. The winning robots move onto the national competition.

The Cimarron-Memorial team put in approximately 600 hours since January with ELE. There were problems, but teachers Marc Rogers and Joe Barry, advisers, believe trial and error was the best way for the students to learn.

"Everybody does (it that way)," said David Rhoads, 14. "We got to space through trial and error."

"The first time it ran, it was like 'I can't believe this thing is running,' " said Mike Jucha, 17. "Then, the chain fell off and it ran like a '71 Buick."

This year was the first time Nevada schools participated. In late October, teachers were approached by the University of Nevada, Reno and NASA and were encouraged to form a FIRST team.

"It was a lot of hard work, but when you put everything together and it works, it's a great feeling," said Stacy Raagas, 17, who lead the design team for the robot's arm.

The team was made up of students with interests in math, creative design, engineering, construction, mechanics and computers.

"Some students are math wise. Some were good on computers," said Ceyril Paulus, teacher and adviser for Palo Verde's team. "Most of our students didn't have the hands-on experience, so that was a whole new ball game for them."

The young Palo Verde team -- made up of mostly underclassmen -- fixed last-minute problems before loading Robot 989 into a crate for shipping. The team's biggest challenge came with modifying parts to fit the robot's purpose.

"I was more relieved we got something to run well because we had so many problems," Paulus said. "It was nice when you put the last screw in the box, and they came and picked it up, and it went on its way. Now we have to see if we're going to be surprised when we open it and see if it's still in one piece."

Paulus worked in the engineering industry before becoming a physics teacher. He helped where he could, but allowed his students to do most of the work.

"You have to let it evolve with the students instead of doing it yourself," Paulus said. "You have the idea of what you want and what's worked before because you've seen it happen that way. They had to work that out for themselves."

"It just reaffirmed by belief in the capability of the kids," Rogers said. "We didn't help much at all."

"The whole intent was to have these kids make the decision. We were here to have them question the things they were doing," Barry said. "We still see little robots in our dreams."

"There are only about 11 of us (at Cimarron-Memorial) who can say we actually built a robot in school," added Terry Tantlinger, 17, a Cimarron-Memorial teammate.

Now, all four teams just have to make it through the regionals and possibly the national competition.

"It's not the end," Barry said. "Building it was just the first step."


<<--[back]