Trenton Catholic Academy places in the Top Ten at 2016 Steinert Slam!
 
Hamilton Square, NJ – Trenton Catholic Academy Lower School Robotics Team, the Jr. Iron Mechs, placed 6 ^th out of 26 teams who participated in the “9 ^th Annual Steinert Slam! First Lego League (FLL) Tournament” on Saturday, November 19 at Steinert High School.
 
Sponsored by the Mercer County Improvement Authority (MCIA) and hosted by the Steinert Robotics FRC Team, 2180 Zero Gravity, the challenge was entitled, “Animal Allies”.
 
To complete the challenge, students needed to “identify a problem where people and animals interact, design a solution that makes it better for animals, people, or both and share your problem and solution with others.
 
“We looked at the bear population in New Jersey and acknowledged the potential danger of bears and humans interacting in nature.  We did some research and found that bears do not like the smell of moth balls, so we diluted them in 91% alcohol and made them into moth ball cakes,” Mr. John Kocis, team moderator and TCA Director of Technology, said.
 
“Once we had the moth ball cakes, we made a clip that it fit in,” 6 ^th grade student Analiese Grandberry said.  She fashioned her pine tree design after a Febreeze car clip, and once designed on the Maker Space, printed her own design on one of the school’s 3D printers.
 
The second part of the competition was the Robot Games. During the Robot Games, the teams needed to design a robot fashioned to solve one or more of the missions presented by the FLL.
 
7 ^th grade student Steven Marin participated on the team for the past 2 years and served this year as a programmer and team presenter.
 
“It’s not just playing with Legos,” Marin shared. “We build with Legos, we learn with Legos, we succeed with Legos.”
 
One thing Grandberry and Marin stressed was the need to work together as a team.
 
“I learned a lot about teamwork,” Grandberry said. “I am used to working alone so it was good to share ideas with others.”
 
Her teammate agreed.
 
“Working as a team is so important,” Marin acknowledged.
 
“Teamwork is very important,” fellow 7 ^th grade student Giovanni Monte asserted. “We had to help each other out and listen to everyone’s suggestions.”
 
As team moderator, Kocis could not be more proud of his team that included many first year members.
 
“The team worked very hard, they prepared, they researched, they found a problem that was relevant to our local environment and worked to address that.  They did an excellent job and should be proud of all their accomplishments.”
 
He also took time to thank the additional moderators, Mr. John Bangs and John Bangs, Jr., and team sponsors, who include The Tuchman Foundation and ASRC Federal Missions Solutions.
 
Although the competition is over for this year, the team is continuing to work on computer programming and coding in their Technology classes and afterschool clubs.
 
Although they didn’t move on to Finals this year, don’t count out the Jr. Iron Mechs just yet, Monte advises, as the team has their sights on bigger prizes.
 
“We have big goals and we’ll complete more missions. We’ll work faster and we’ll work smarter.”
 
For more information please contact Rose O’Connor at the above information.