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St. Clare's School robotics coach Mary Lee, left, with team members Melissa Poggioli, Brianna Kolsin, Thomas Drennan and Christopher Goodwin, celebrate after winning the Champion's Award during the First Lego Robotics Competition. Students dedicated their work to Mrs. Lee's son, Army Spc. James (Jamie) Lee, who is recuperating after he was wounded in Afghanistan.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- When robotics students at St. Clare's School in Great Kills, learned that their coach's son, Army Spc. James (Jamie) Lee, was wounded while on duty in Afghanistan in February, they decided to dedicate their season to him and to all the men and women serving in the Armed Forces.
Their dedication and determination paid off, with the St. Clare's team -- dubbed "The "Transformers"-- took home the Champion's Award for being the top overall team of the 73 teams competing in the weekend's First Lego League Robotics Competition at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.
Prall Intermediate School, West Brighton, and Eltingville Lutheran School also won awards.
The kids won points from the judges for robot performance and technical design, research, teamwork and professionalism.
This year's theme -- "Challenge Nature's Fury" -- had students design a robot that could respond to natural disasters. The robot had to complete mock tasks as it moved along a game board. These included getting people, supplies and pets into safe zones; releasing a cargo plane with supplies; releasing tsuami waves; lifting a house to protect it from floods; getting a branch away from power lines; testing earthquake-proof buildings; relocating construction, and getting an ambulance and supply truck into special areas.
St. Clare's students designed a robot that was able to multi-task and had multi-functional attachments. The robot was able to move a truck into a yellow safety zone on the board, and then swing around to do construction relocation, and then back into the earthquake tester, before heading back to its base. The autonomous robot was programmed by the students who were allowed to launch it from base.
INVENTIONS ALSO JUDGED
Also as part of the competition students had to design an invention that would aid people during a natural disaster such as Hurricane Sandy. The St. Clare's team created "Pack N' Track" -- a waterproof box with a radio wave tracking system to keep documents safe and dry when there are flooding conditions.
Members of the winning St. Clare's team included Thomas Drennan, Christopher Goodwin, Brianna Kolsin and Melissa Poggioli, and were coached by Mary Lee.
The team members drafted a statement they read before the competition, explaining how they dedicated their work to Spc. Lee.
"We have been working hard as a team to make our coach proud of us, even more so after this happened. . .The tragedy has taught us that we can accomplish great things when we work as a team, and that we can all be leaders in our own right. . .It has also showed us the importance of using our gifts and talents to help others, just like Spc. Lee," they wrote.
Mrs. Lee, a science teacher at St. Clare's, said she "could not be prouder of my teams that competed in this event." Mrs. Lee also thanked colleages Maureen Miller and Meghan Vautrinot for their support in helping her run the team in between trips to see her son, who is recuperating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md.
Two teams from Prall won awards, including third place for teamwork and third place for robot design and programming.
Team members of the "Prall Mustangs" include Thomas Potras, Jeff Quintero, Brendon Kung and Derek Wong. Also Evan Wilson, Keving Quintero and Albert Cardone. They are coached by Bryan Kilgallen.
Eltingville Lutheran won third place for "professionalism."
Members of the "ELS Eagles" include Patrick Mazza, Robert Marrone, Mason Crowley, Jacob Kobrak, Ben Kobrak, Daniel Timpone, Natalie Bouwmans, Miranda Bouwmans, Jared Thompson and Michael Furio. They are coached by Dorie Marrone and Peter Hansen.
Other Island teams who competed were Barnes Intermediate School, Great Kills; the Michael J. Petrides School, Sunnyside, and PS 57, Clifton.
The event also included a Junior First Lego League Expo for students ages 6 to 9. Teams from all five boroughs, including St. Clare's and PS 57, presented posters and exhibits about natural disasters.