Sunday, April 03, 2016

NY1 - NYCFIRST Champion From St. Albans Going to Championships in St. Louis

Eric Greene, a long-time coach for over a decade makes it to the promised land by winning the NYC First LEGO League championship at the Javits Convention Center on March 12, 2016.

Eric is raising funds to take his team to St. Louis.


This year’s winner was the team from IS 192Q from the St. Albans area of eastern Queens which is coached by Eric Greene who won for the first time. Eric has been a heroic figure for me since he joined our program 14 years ago as he managed to keep the robotics program going through all these years. This was no light victory since the competition came from many of the most elite private schools in the city which have many more resources than Eric has. Eric can now take his team to St. Louis for the international championship but needs to raise funds to do so. The team is from a lower middle class area (hard-working parents making ends meet), with possibly a few kids from the lower income level; it is a mixed income area. Eric is running a Go Fund Me Campaign and put out this request for assistance:



The robotics team from IS 192.
The FLL Champion robotics team from IS 192Q in St.Albans - Help to St. Louis

“We are the Robotics Team from IS 192 in St. Albans, Queens, New York. The team is made of seventh and eighth grade students. We just won the 1st Place Champion’s Award at the NYC FIRST LEGO League Championship tournament. Our team is now invited to the FIRST (World) Championship tournament in St. Louis, Mo. This event will take place April 27 to April 30. There are 14 members on the team. We would like everyone to but some families are unable to afford the trip. The money will go toward airfare, hotel, meals, and other expenses. We need the money as soon as possible so we can plan the trip and see how many students and parents would like to go and who needs financial help. It would be great if they all could go because everyone contributed to the team’s success.”

Here is the site if you want to help: www.gofundme.com/eru9tz9q

See video at:
http://www.ny1.com/nyc/queens/news/2016/03/29/-st--albans-school-to-compete-in-robotics-world-championship-.html

St. Albans School To Compete in Robotics World Championship 

By Shannan Ferry
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 05:56 PM EDT

 
The pressure is on for these LEGO robots, and the tech-savvy middle school students who created them.
"I feel pumped up I mean, we're the best of the best," said one student.
The best in New York City, and possibly the world.
IS 192 in St. Albans won the F.I.R.S.T. LEGO League Citywide Robotics Contest.
Now, they're preparing for an international championship in St. Louis, Missouri.
"We're putting our A-game on right not we're working like 110% right now," said a second student.
The competition is organized by non-profit NYC First.
The goal is to get students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.
"We sketch our ideas, and we also virtually design everything we do before we do it," said a third student.
This years theme is 'Trash Trek.'  Students program their robots to complete various tasks focused on recycling.
The competitors also have to identify a trash-related issue, and propose a way to solve it.  I.S. 192 students discovered recycling machines frequently jam.
"So their solution was to add color to the bar codes that the bottles read, and that way the machines wouldn't break down as much," said Eric Greene, who is a Robotics & Technology teacher.
The students are also judged on the league's core values including teamwork, professionalism and cooperation.
"These kids, there's something magical about these kids, they wouldn't settle for mediocre, every time they were working good enough was not good enough it had to be excellent," said Greene.
"It is really competitive you have teams from all over the world, and we're in it to win it like, serious," said another student.
But they still make time for fun.
The team has set up an online fundraising page for the trip.
The World Championship starts on April 27.