WIESBADEN, Germany - Future engineers were hard at it Feb. 19 making last minute adjustments before crating and shipping this year's entry in the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition.
As members of the RoboWarriors team at Wiesbaden High School worked on Frau POW! V2 (as the second generation robot has come to be known - a last year tribute to one of the school's teachers), instructor Frank Pendzich described the vital role the annual robotics competition, held in Las Vegas, Nev., has played in fomenting interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
"We have 41 kids in the club this year; last year we had 12," said the Wiesbaden High engineering technology and professional technical studies instructor.
With a team of 16 heading to Las Vegas for the competition April 1-3, Pendzich said students will once again have the opportunity to see first-hand the diverse ways of approaching and finding solutions to engineering problems.
"Even kids who aren't going to Vegas show up to help out with the robot - that says a lot," he said.
With this year's challenge requiring students to build a robot capable of competing in a contest known as Breakaway - navigating through a tunnel, over an obstacle course, hanging from a platform, all while attempting to score soccer goals - students have been diligently working on all aspects of the robot to be ready for the competition.
Teams were given six weeks from this year's challenge announcement date in early January to plan and build the robot.
"It's been a lot of fun," said Andrew Cooke, a member of the Wiesbaden High School RoboWarrior team focusing on the electrical requirements. "I can definitely say I've learned a lot."
"We teamed up with students in Aviano High School this year," said Pendzich, explaining that while Wiesbaden students have built a highly interactive website and the robot itself, Aviano students put together the computer-aided design drawings for the project.
With a wide range of financial and mentoring support, Pendzich added that the robotics competition also serves as a community project. Like last year, support has come from fellow Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Europe information technology specialists, the school's Booster Club, Wiesbaden Community Spouses Club, Society of American Military Engineers, NASA, the Air Force Association and the competition's organizer, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, founded by inventor and scientist Dean Kamen. "We've had private donations as well."
"Our school district has bent over backwards to make this happen," he said, adding that DoDEA administrators "see the value of this educational opportunity. "We're trying to get the students to think like engineers," said Pendzich. "There's been a real emphasis on technical studies in the last decade and renewed interest in career technology education."
Task forces have also underscored the importance of revitalizing the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, he said.
"This gives me more of an opportunity to explore the field of engineering," said Laren Smith, as he and Eric Howard concentrated on solving issues of manipulating the robot's arm.
Both students said they were interested in careers in the engineering field.
"This requires a great deal of patience - assembling, disassembling, reassembling," all aspects of real-world engineering, said Pendzich. "I hope we'll get recognition at the competition, but just going and participating is reward enough for these kids."
Aiming to put their own personal stamp on a team coming from Germany for the stateside event, the instructor added that students will be wearing their own team colors - lederhosen T-shirts and traditional German "dirndl" dresses.
For more information about this year's RoboWarrior team visit www.wies-hs.eu.dodea.edu/HTML/robomain.html. While exploring the interactive site, make sure to leave your impressions on the team's blog page.
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