‘Sea Bots’ are in Iowa competing in U.S. Open
The students of Neptune Middle School’s “Sea Bots” Robotics team will be competing in the U.S Open Robotics Competition in Iowa this week.
Teacher Karen Perry sponsors the PLTW Engineering, Medical Detectives, Robotics and Gifted studies at Neptune Middle School.
“There’s no limits to what you can do in robotics…it’s kinda like a mini-family,” Logan Forty-Way, a seventh grader and second year member of the club, said.
“Robotics have always been an interest of mine,” said first-year team member Hunter Dixon.
Each club member has a different job, from driver to engineer, which allows them to gain real world experience in the STEM field. The drivers and some of the builders of the group are Forty-Way, Dixon, Tyler Koromhas, Daniela Albarran, Liam Folian, Nicolas Schron, and Adriana Peralta. The coders are Lenron Cambran, and Wesley Ransom. And the engineers of the group are Samari Meddar, Ziheng Cai, and Avery Cannon.
“I have a real passion for robotics. When I was in elementary, some people from UCF came over to my school and they allowed us to try one of the plastic robots and I really liked it, so I decided to try out robotics.” Nitesh Rambersad, club member, said.
Many students in the club expressed that they loved the robotics club because it allowed them the creative freedom to build and to continue participating in the hobbies they love.
“My career choice used to be way different than it what it is now,” first year member and sixth-grader Wesley Ransom said. “I used to not be able to do coding at all, but I think robotics has helped me.” The robotics club is composed of three unique groups: The Bounty Hunters, The Atlantians, and the Karate Penguins. The robot that will be in attendance is also named “Bounty Hunter” after the team of students that’ll be competing with it. Bounty Hunter was created from a collection of pieces pulled from previous robots with the help of all the students in the club.
“We basically put Karate Penguins and Bounty Hunter together,” eighth grader Lenron Cambran, said. “We ripped apart our old robot and we used some of the pieces from the base. We had an idea; we had a pusher and we made it into a shooter.”
The VEX Robotics Competition hosts an exciting engineering challenge presented in the form of four distinct tournaments for middle and high school students. In addition to learning valuable engineering skills, students gain teamwork, perseverance, communication, collaboration, project management, and critical thinking skills. The VEX Robotics Competition prepares students to become future innovators, according to Roboticseducation.org.
“I just love how we do it and how we work together.” Adriana Peralta, first-year member, said.
Don Perry and Principal Thomas Rademacher began the program in 2013, viewing robotics as a hidden gem. Since Karen, his wife, took over, Rademacher has been working behind the scenes in supporting the program and has been dubbed “the quiet force” behind the success of the STEM programs.
“By eighth grade, you have students who are going to Worlds in Dallas, going to U.S Opens in Iowa because they had these opportunities that they never had before,” Rademacher said. “That’s the biggest part I get excited about, they say ‘quiet’ but I’m not so quiet when they win. I’m their biggest cheerleader.”
After taking over the program in 2022, Ms. Perry said she’s grown to love it, and that she’s able to support and help the students find their niche in the world.
“If it has to do with kids and science and competing, I’m all over it,” she said. “Everyday I am happy to say that I am helping the engineers of the future … to know they play an equally important part in the future of country.”
Perry and the Sea Bots have been busy fundraising and preparing for the upcoming competition next week. From cotton candy and popcorn fundraisers to the group designing racetracks in order to raise money to support the trip, the team has dedicated a lot of time and effort towards the competition. They will have the opportunity to not only bring home a trophy for Neptune Middle School, but dozens of items from different robotic teams from all over the country.
The U.S Open will be webcasted on the VEX Robotics website (https:// www. robotevents. com/ robot- competitions/ vexrobotics- competition).
