Beck Middle School students build a first-place winner
Seven years ago, Marlene Houlihan was hired to teach seventh-grade science at Beck Middle School. She was looking for ways to get her students involved and excited about science.
She entered the school in the Science Olympiad competition, which allowed her to bring 18 students and three alternates to the event. But she had an overwhelming number of students who wanted to join the group, and had no option but to make cuts.
So she began to look elsewhere, to find an activity where all students interested in science could participate. Over the years, she’s had students get involved in Destination Imagination, a creative problem-solving competition and Sea Perch, an underwater robotics competition.
But the event with the most staying power, for her students, at least, is the First Lego League, a robotics competition designed to get children excited about science and technology.
Members of the Beck Robotics Team recently competed in the First Lego League Championship, held at the University of Pennsylvania.
The event drew teams of 10 from all across the region.
Building a robot may sound like fun and games to some, but for the students on the team, competing in large-scale events is hard work and requires hours of research and planning, Houlihan said.
And the fruits of their labor paid off.
The team, consisting of Beck students Sammy Breslau, Matt Cusick, Nathan Hengy, Eric Kim, Jessica Levine, Rachel Lim, Noah Poldolnick, Grace Shen, Angela Sun and Danny Swartz, claimed the first-place core values award at the Penn competition.
The team was honored by the panel of judges for their teamwork, gracious professionalism, compassion and teambuilding activities.
The competition was three-fold, challenging teams to build a robot using the NXT Lego program software. The robot was expected to perform a challenge on a 4×8 table.
The Beck team also needed to present a research project.
The theme was food-borne illnesses, so the team decided to research Lysteria, a disease transferred through farm equipment left in puddles.
The disease is typically transferred to the crops harvested by farmers, which is hopefully caught prior to being shipped elsewhere for sale or consumption. The goal in researching the disease is to make it understandable by presenting it in an innovative way or through a skit.
Houlihan said she is consistently impressed by the way her students work together to achieve a common goal.
“They do it all together,”Houlihan said. “It’s interesting to see how students solve problems.”
Next up for the team: the state competition on March 19.
And for students about to move on from Beck, there is even an opportunity to continue their love of robotics at the high school level.
Cherry Hill East boasts a robotics club, which was started by the first group of students Houlihan taught and coached nearly seven years ago.
“It’s inspiring. The kids are so dedicated,” Houlihan said. “It keeps me going.”
