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After a strong showing last weekend at a regional robotics competition in Rhode Island, a Bucksport High School team has set their sights on an even bigger competition.
Team 6329, as the Bucksport team is known, won first place at the New England FIRST Robotics Competition district event in Glocester, Rhode Island, according to Bucksport High School Principal Josh Tripp. FIRST is an international non-profit group that organizes a series of team-based robotics competitions for children ages 4-18 to promote interest and engagement in STEM scholars.
Even more impressive than that, however, is what the win means for Team Bucksport’s standings as they look to the FIRST International Championship in Houston in April. Team 6329 is now ranked ninth in the world.
“It’s really good,” Tripp said. “It’s quite exciting.”
The Bucksport team, which was started about nine years ago, took its latest Shock robot to Ponaganset High School in Rhode Island, where it competed in an agility competition that required the robot to be remote-controlled over and around obstacles and picking up, carrying, and placing objects in various locations in a small, enclosed arena about the size of a tennis court.
Tripp said the team has competed in various competitions in New England over the years and has faced international teams at previous world championships. It started with a handful of students the last decade, but now, partly because of its success, it has attracted between 25 and 30 students from all high school grades.
“They really grew this program,” Tripp said.
Tripp said coaches John Boynton and Mike Gross deserve a lot of the credit, but the team’s sponsors, donors and volunteers have all played a vital role in that growth.
Four years ago, a donation from Bucksport High School grads Shelby and Andy Silvernail, who gave the high school $250,000 for the school’s STEM program, was particularly helpful. He financed the purchase of a computer numerical control milling machine, a CNC router table and a CNC plasma table — high-tech equipment that the team was able to use to manufacture the components for their robots.
The donation also paid for the training of 25 RSU educators in enhanced STEM teaching methods and for two Bucksport teachers to become math coaches.
Tripp said the success of the robotics team has helped attract students to more STEM courses at school, which in turn helps graduates get jobs in science and technology. When students see the fun aspects of applied science through building and using robots, it opens their eyes to possibilities beyond high school, he said.
“To me, that’s more important than the test results,” the principal said. “Teenagers love competition. It’s cool to be on the robotics team.
Tripp said the team hasn’t been officially invited to compete in Houston yet, but they expect to hear about it soon.
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