Plainedge team first at robotics event

A team from Plainedge High School recently proved its robotics chops in a big way.

The school's Red Dragons robotics team beat 66 teams last month to take first place in the 2011 New York City/New Jersey Regional FIRST Robotics Competition held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

The 52-student squad is eligible to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in St. Louis on April 27.

"It was pretty unbelievable," senior and team member Steve Lambro said of the achievement. "Everyone was mostly in shock. On the bus ride home everyone started freaking out."

The regional competition required teams in a six-week period to build and program 120-pound robots that could perform a series of prescribed tasks ranging from grasping and hanging inflatable tubes on pegs to climbing a metal pole. Varying amounts of points were issued to teams based on each task's level of difficulty.

Plainedge's robot operated "like a forklift," Lambro said, by scooping up tubes off the ground one at a time and clamping them down before extending upward to reach the pegs.

To win, the team competed in about 15 matches of qualifying and elimination rounds.

"The whole thing is not really about winning and losing; it's about problem-solving, and the game is secondary," said Robert Gandolfo, Plainedge physics teacher and robotics team adviser. "This competition helps kids to connect what they learn in science and math to a real-world application."

The team has not decided whether to attend the world championships, Lambro said, because the costs would include a $5,000 team entry fee plus travel expenses. The team is inviting donations. The Red Dragons team also received the event's Team Spirit and Industrial Safety awards.

BELLMORE

Historic fire remembered

John F. Kennedy High School's studio in art class commemorated last month's 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in Manhattan by collaborating on mixed-media artwork with high schoolers in the Bronx.

Their work was featured in an exhibit at Cooper Union in Manhattan that had the fire as its theme. The finished piece was a collage of scenes from inside the factory -- created using pencil, markers and newspaper clippings -- bordered by illustrations of flames and bricks.

The March 25, 1911, factory fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers and resulted in the fourth-highest loss of life from an industrial accident in the United States.

FREEPORT

Reading e-books

Freeport High School has launched a pilot program expected to enhance the reading skills of students learning English by using 30 Amazon Kindles, which are portable e-book readers.

The Kindles, purchased through a grant from the Hauppauge-based nonprofit Long Island Cares, are equipped with built-in dictionaries and "text-to-speech" features that allow students to hear the proper pronunciation of the words they are reading, school officials said. "Students are so technologically savvy that we hope the Kindle will entice them to read more," said Andrea Kane, the school's English chairwoman.

COUNTYWIDE

Math teachers honored

Three teachers from Nassau County have been named 2011 Teachers of the Year by the Nassau County Mathematics Teachers Association based on nominations from their peers.

Winners are Haley Kamp of Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School in Oyster Bay at the elementary level, Caryl Lorandini of Carle Place Middle School at the middle school level, and Marian Pasetsky of Solomon Schechter High School of Long Island in Glen Cove at the high school level.

The trio will be honored at the association's annual spring dinner, slated for

May 19.

ISLANDWIDE

Odyssey of the Mind

Three Long Island teams have advanced to the 2011 World Finals of the Odyssey of the Mind, an educational program in which students are asked to devise creative solutions to various problems.

The advancing teams are from Stanley D. Saltzman East Memorial Elementary School in Farmingdale, Our Lady of Wisdom Regional School in Port Jefferson and the Long Beach School District's Learning Activities for Raising Creativity (LARC) program.

To reach the world level teams competed at the 32nd annual state finals last month at Binghamton University. Challenges ranged from creating a mousetrap-powered vehicle to designing a structure that would hold weight but also incorporate some sort of hinge.

The 2011 World Finals will be held at the University of Maryland May 27-30.