The Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School robotics team “POBots,” participated in the Regional for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition on Friday and Saturday. The team competed with both local and national teams, and they placed 44 out of the 50 teams.
The hard-working troop worked together with their technology teacher Mr. Kunz and their mentor Josh Zeisel. Their robot was completed within the time frame of six weeks (a guideline of the competition), and they brainstormed the best possible robot to build within the constricted time.
“I am very proud of our robot it performed as designed and was reliable,” said Kunz. “The students put in hundreds of hours, and they worked very hard on design, fabrication and testing of the robot. The total score is 100 percent for our students in the learning process.”
Aerial Assist was the game that the teams played. The game is played by two competing alliances of three robots each on a flat 25 x 54 foot field. The objective was to score as many balls in goals as possible during a match of about two minutes. The more alliances score their ball in their goals, and the more they work together to do it, the more points their alliance receives.
Working together was a key role of competing in the regional game. Not only did the students earn points for working together, they showed fellowship amongst members of other teams. If any student needed a mechanical part, they would announce it over the speakers, and members from other teams would give their spare part to them.
Each student put effort into the project, and the team agreed that’s what made making a robot from scratch fun and worth the labor.
“We have a very large technology club, and everyone put in their part. We are very proud of our finished product,” said Erin Norris, secretary and team member.
