Latest news with #FIRSTChampionship
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Lockport schools help students explore and explain STEM
Whether it's exploring traits of organisms or building a robot that can throw frisbees, students across the Lockport City School District are immersed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The success of the district's 12-year science instruction transformation was brought home recently when Lockport's STEM team The Warlocks competed in the international FIRST Championship in robotics in Houston. At last week's districtwide STEM Night, the Warlocks demonstrated its robot Decibel's ability to retrieve and throw orange frisbees called 'notes.' Working within a size and weight limit, students built the robot to move on a series of rollers similar to vacuum cleaner brushes. The team adapted Xbox controllers to navigate the machine and control its frisbee shot. The Warlocks placed fifth in a regional tournament at Miami Valley, Ohio. Competing against the best in the nation April 19, The Warlocks won the Imagery Award that recognized their outstanding visual design, theme integration, and overall team aesthetic. 'Every student in our district is getting hands-on exposure to STEM,' said Denyel Beiter, the district's public relations specialist. 'That's something we've been really intentional about as part of our K–12 STEM Framework. Our goal is to build STEM learning that's rigorous, connected across grade levels, and grounded in real-world problem-solving.' For STEM Night, third-graders Delaney Lute and Kyla Castle presented their class's model for how an organism could adapt to feed itself. Using marbles as potential food, the students tested the effectiveness of spoons and forks as body parts for feeding. The students were asked to build an adaptation that worked better than the spoon. Using chopsticks, clay, and tinfoil, the students built a scoop appendage that performed even better. According to Lisa Stastyshyn, a science instructional coach at Lockport's elementary schools, the project demonstrates the latest, hands-on approach to STEM learning, which begins in elementary school. The shift from 'old-school' science teaching, which focused on memorization, to three-dimensional learning, began in 2013 when Next Generation Science Standards were introduced, Stastyshyn said. The standards were developed by a consortium of 26 states. Content is arranged in a coherent manner across disciplines and grades to provide all students with an internationally benchmarked science education. 'It's more hands-on experience and uses an inquiry model,' she said. 'It's more of a way that the teacher steps back and becomes the facilitator of the learning. We give kids a phenomenon to experience. Then we ask them to consider, think about, and explore that phenomenon.' Stastyshyn said as teachers, 'We don't want to interfere with their thinking' at this stage. Letting students work with models and parts allows them to see concepts at work, and helps children comprehend the subject, she said. Stastyshyn describes the instructional method as a series of steps beginning with E; expose, explore, explain, evaluate, and extend. In some ways, it mirrors the scientific method. She said students get 'a taste' for something that occurs, explore it to come up with their own conclusions and questions, and then the teacher explains what is known about it. 'From that point on, the students are figuring a lot on their own,' Stastyshyn said. 'The teacher clarifies any misconceptions.' The teacher evaluates how well students understand the lesson, and then extends it, prompting children to push their own thinking further. This step got third-graders involved in using engineering principles of design and use of materials to see how a living thing's physical structures might help it survive. At the elementary level, each year is split into physical science, earth science and life science, Stastyshyn said. 'It gets more complex each year,' she said. 'In fifth grade, they're really getting into materials, their properties, and testing them. They're looking more into the chemical reactions and performing data collection.' In grades 6-8, students' instruction branches off into specific sciences, such as chemistry, physics, and biology, she said.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Robot rumble: Inside Houston's international robotics competition
HOUSTON (NewsNation) — Thousands of high school students from around the world are competing at the FIRST Championship, a four-day robotics competition in Houston. From Armenia to Australia, more than 15,000 students representing 17 countries are participating in the competition, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. They design, code and build complex robots from scratch to compete in intense challenges. 'We have to travel a long way to get here, which means we have to pack our robot all up in, like, a crate and send it multiple weeks before the actual competition,' said Ashley Nestlerode, driver for Australia's Thunder Down Under robotics team. Smartphones may boost kids' mental health: Study Major companies such as NASA and Boeing also attend, scouting for the next generation of engineers. The competition kicked off Thursday morning and will run through the weekend. 'The technology that's used in building the robots is just so far beyond what it was,' said Collin Fultz, senior director of FIRST Championship, reflecting on how far the event has come since he competed more than 20 years ago. This year's challenge involves cleaning imaginary algae, represented by dodgeballs, scoring them into nets, and placing PVC pipe 'coral' on a simulated reef. 'A Castle of your own': White Castle selling new bounce house 'It'll be three on the blue alliance against three robots on the red alliance,' Fultz explained. 'At the end of the match, they climb and get their 150-pound robots hanging from this cage.' When teams aren't competing, they're in the pits, tweaking and perfecting their robots for the next round. For many students, the experience is about more than just competition. 'Having that robotics initiative and bringing the mission of FIRST to the reservation is why we're on the Hall of Fame team right now,' said Elena Klopfenstein, of Coconino High School's CocoNuts Robotics team in Flagstaff, Arizona. Last year, the CocoNuts were inducted into the FIRST Hall of Fame after receiving the program's highest honor, the FIRST World Championship Impact Award. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Morocco World
17-04-2025
- Science
- Morocco World
Four Teams Represent Morocco at US Robotics Championship
After standing out in national competitions, four Moroccan teams are proudly representing the country at the FIRST Championship in the United States city of Houston from April 15 to 19. Organized by FIRSt brings together young innovators from around the world to celebrate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), this global event aims to prepare the next generation for the future. The Moroccan teams – Novatard, Robot 11 Janvier, 3andiBlasti, and Mindcraft Senior – earned their spots through two national qualifying events. Namely, the FIRST Lego League Challenge that was held on February 1 at the UM6P campus in Benguerir, and the FIRST Tech Challenge that took place on February 15 at Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM) in Rabat. These teams are accompanied by four dedicated volunteers and supported by LOOP For Science & Technology, the organization responsible for coordinating FIRST events in Morocco. Founded in 2018, LOOP is a non-profit, non-political, and non-religious association committed to promoting STEAM—Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics – especially among children. Through workshops, conferences, training sessions, and international collaborations, LOOP works to strengthen STEAM education and inspire young minds across the country. Robotics have experienced significant growth in recent years, driven by advancements in education and international collaborations. In 2024, Moroccan team 'NexTech' won the World Robot Olympiad in Turkiye. NexTech presented a project called 'Terra Genius,' a robot designed to support sustainable farming by planting seeds, managing irrigation and monitoring crops. Tags: 'Morocco in processRobotics competitionUS news
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jackpot $1 million lottery ticket sold in Woodbury
Luck was in the air in Woodbury as someone recently won more than $1 million from the Gopher 5. The golden ticket was sold at Kwik Trip on City Centre Drive. According to Minnesota Lottery, the Woodbury Kwik Trip will earn a $5,000 bonus for selling the ticket. The winning numbers drawn Wednesday, April 9, were 5-14-28-39-43 and the total prize was a $1,015,162 jackpot. Gopher 5 tickets cost $1 to play. Jackpots start at $100,000 and grow until won, according to Minnesota Lottery. Though drawings are held for the Gopher 5 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the odds of winning the jackpot are one in 1,533,939, according to Minnesota Lottery. Prizes of more than $50,000 are to be claimed in person at Minnesota Lottery headquarters in Roseville. The winning Woodbury Gopher 5 ticket was anonymously claimed Tuesday, according to Minnesota Lottery Public Affairs Director Joan Schimml. Open house set for proposed Maplewood-Woodbury-Afton trail MN robotics teams preparing to compete in the big one: FIRST Championship Work underway on Woodbury's new water treatment plant; traffic impacts expected Woodbury launches a new visitors bureau and website Stillwater schools make leadership changes
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Oak Park Heights state of emergency declared to deal with water main break
Officials in Oak Park Heights have declared a state of emergency as crews work to repair a municipal water main break between Lookout Trail and Peacan Avenue. The break has caused underground water loss and excessive pumping of water from the city's wells, with water losses appearing to be in excess of tens of thousands of gallons per day, city officials said, leading to the risk of underground erosion and loss of water service to residents if the condition worsens. The repair, which is expected to cost $175,000, is complicated because the water main traverses between private properties and the topography is challenging, said City Administrator Jacob Rife. The water main is buried more than 20 feet deep in one area, requiring a larger excavation pit than normal, he said. Making the repair even more complicated is the fact that excavators encountered large pieces of concrete and rebar construction debris – believed to be part of an old, demolished highway project — buried in the area, he said. In addition, there is a private garage directly adjacent to the dig site that complicated the excavation, he said. Because of the challenges, city officials have decided to use a more-expensive 'cured-in-place' polymer pipe liner to ensure the section is properly repaired, he said. Because there are only a few contractors who do that kind of work, city officials needed to declare a state of emergency to allow the city to move forward with a contract that is not subject to normal purchasing and competitive-bidding requirements, according to Rife. 'We want to make sure it gets fixed promptly and also want to make sure we have a solution that will last for the long term,' Rife said. The current pipe was constructed in 1976, and 'it's had a good run,' he said. 'It's just in a unique location. You don't expect a water main to be running in the road right of way and running through people's back yards.' The repair project is expected to start April 22 and continue until the end of the month, he said. Lake Elmo assistant principal injured in fight between students Long-awaited Tanners Lake development plan in Oakdale includes apartments, townhomes Open house set for proposed Maplewood-Woodbury-Afton trail At Capitol and Stillwater, a swing to commemorate baseball history MN robotics teams preparing to compete in the big one: FIRST Championship
