WHS robotics teams compete in statewide competition

By Masha Yurkevich

This past Saturday, the Windham High School robotics teams 1810S 1810T competed in the Maine State Championships in South Portland. They had spent months preparing and qualifying for this event, making adjustments to their robot in order for it to perform at its best on the big day.

WHS Team 1810S consists of Francesca Lomonte, Victoria Lin, Pyper Harris, and Rosario Lydon, and WHS Team 1810T consists of Emma Kennedy, Ava Kennedy, and Colby Prescott. The two Windham teams competed with 72 other teams, 48 of which were in the high school division.

 

Windham High teams 1810S and 1810T competed in the
Maine State Robotics Championships last weekend in
South Portland. Team 1810S members are Francesca 
Lomonte, Victoria Lin, Pyper Harris and Rosario Lydon.
Team 18100T members are Emma Kennedy, Ava Kennedy,
and Colby Prescott. The two Windham teams competed 
against 72 other teams, including 48 from the high school
division. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Michelle Lane is the coach for the WHS robotics teams. She started developing the team five years ago when she started teaching at Windham. She was the Robotics Team coach at the previous school where she taught and wanted to start a team in Windham.

The team was officially formed in the fall of 2019. Lane received a grant that would give the school a robotics kit if they purchased one. This would allow for two groups of students that could compete at the competitions, which was perfect for the five interested students.

All five students only had six weeks to work on one robot for the first competition that they attended in November of 2019, since the other kit did not arrive in time. There have been other students interested in joining, though the team has not been able to reach out due to limited transportation and the amount of robot kits that are available.

“The purpose of the Robotics Team is to have a place where students can apply what they learn in their academic classes and to practice critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork skills all while working on an engaging, hands-on robotics challenge” says Lane. “Team members learn a variety of skills that will help them be successful in life. The main one being able to follow the engineering design process, which can be applied to most issues the students may face in their life.”

The process allows students to understand the importance of researching, developing multiple solutions, analyzing those solutions to choose the best one, creating the solution, and then evaluating their solution. During this process students also learn organization, time management, dependability, adaptability, and communication skills.

The team names, 1810S and 1810T, have an interesting story behind them. When you register a team with VEX Robotics Competition, you need to pick numbers and a letter that will be used to distinguish the teams from one another. At Lane’s previous school, she just used the ending of the school phone number, so it would be easy to remember. She decided to do the same when she went to register the Windham High team, since the number was available.

Lane registered the first team as 1810W, W for Windham. The second kit did not arrive until later in the year, so she let that team choose their own letter, S for superior. When she registered the third team in 2021, she decided to just continue in the alphabet, T. Lane retired the W team, since it was all seniors last year and they helped start the team.

Francesca Lomonte is a sophomore at WHS and is part of the 1810S team. This is her fourth year in robotics. She did two years of robotics at the middle school level. She joined Lego League at the beginning of sixth grade and VRC the beginning of freshman year.

“In robotics, we work together to design, build, and program a robot that can compete in this year's VEX Robotics Competition game,” said Lomonte. “The game this year is called Spin Up, which is like disc golf but with more rules. Using only pieces that are put out by VEX Robotics, we have to find ways to play the game, decide on which one works best in relation to the amount of time we have and the materials we have access to, construct the robot, then program a controller to make the bot work, as well as two autonomous programs.”

Even though the two teams are separate, they work very well together and help each other when needed.

“If someone walked into the wood shop on a Tuesday afternoon, they would probably find seven teenagers laughing and working together to create something great with music playing in the background,” said Lomonte. “We're all able to be casual around each other and everyone on both teams from WHS works well together and you can tell that we really enjoy each other's company. We also have to put together an Engineering Design Notebook which marks all of our progress and work throughout the season and can help to win awards like the Judges Award.”

Though none of the teams ended up qualifying for the world robotics competition, Team 1810S ended up ranking seventh in skills and Team 1810T in 8th and team 1810S brought home the Inspire Award and team 1810T brought home the Judges Award. <

Mock crime tests intuitive skills of WHS students

During the 'mock crime' exercise at Windham High School
a student 'evidence technician' collects a sample from the
suspect, played by 2021 WHS graduate Griffin Wirtz.
PHOTO BY GARY HARRIMAN

By Lorraine Glowczak

There was plenty of mayhem in the early morning hours on Thursday, May 5, on “Moose Falls High School” campus – or rather – the Windham High School (WHS) campus. “Moose Falls” was the feigned title given to WHS as part of a mock crime scene curriculum study for about 100 students in the English, journalism, math and science classes.

Working alongside the Windham Police Department (WPD), who were instrumental in helping to create an authenticated “crime”, students from math and science worked as “evidence technicians” that collected and analyzed data. They collaborated with the English “detectives” who interviewed the witnesses and suspect (he pleaded the fifth) to develop a theory of the crime. The “journalists” were on hand to write press releases and articles to “inform the public.”  

The “crime” involved a car accident that included a fake passenger who “perished” and a driver, the suspect named “Jerry,” played by 2021 WHS graduate, Griffin Wirtz. The vehicle used during the mock crime scene scenario, was part of an actual accident and was towed to WHS campus by SOS Towing of Windham and placed on the campus behind the football field.

“The purpose [of the Mock Crime Scene] is to have the students learn about forensic investigation and give them a real-life application for the skills that they’re learning in school,” math teacher John Ziegler said in a previous interview. “Here, we’re giving them a great example of when they’re going to have to use math in real life...with a real career-based application to it.”

Science teacher Dan Wirtz explained that the evidence technicians studied ABO blood typing and did lab work identifying different blood types. The students also discussed what constitutes "evidence" and how it is handled from crime scene to trial and even after the trial. 

“We talked about the different illegal drugs that could be found at a crime scene and detected in a human,” Wirtz said. “We also brainstormed what other evidence may show up at a crime scene and how a real event differs from what is seen on TV/movies.”

Wirtz further explained that the expectations were to understand how the different pieces of evidence come together to show what happened, which tests are wholly reliable, and which ones have a high possibility of error.

“We also discussed the rights of anyone who is accused of a crime and what they must do/say, and what their constitutional rights protect them from incriminating themselves,” he said.

English and journalism teacher Chelsea Scott prepared her students for the event by teaching them the essential details and information required when writing about a crime scene.

“Leading up to and including last week, ‘the journalists’ learned the nuances of writing about crime, including what information they should ethically include in a news article and the impact that including certain information may have on an investigation,” Scott said. “Students delved into unbiased writing that empowers the public by sharing useful, impactful information.”

On the day of the event, a former broadcast journalist at News Center Maine, Shannon Moss, who is currently the Public Information Officer for Maine Department of Public Safety spoke to Scott’s journalism students.

“Shannon Moss reminded students that empathy for the interview subjects is more important than being the first to release a story. She brought passion and energy to the discussion of the myriad professionals who work together to both solve crimes and broadcast the news. Moss generously shared tips for building positive relationships with detectives, which connected well with discussions that we have had as a class with guest speakers Bruce Robert Coffin and Detective Sergeant Jason Andrews.”

Other English class “detectives”, taught by Adrianne Shetenhelm and Nicole Densmore practiced their observation and notetaking skills.

“The students are writing an official police report as one of their final projects to improve their informative explanatory writing,” Shetenhelm said. “They also practiced their speaking and listening skills by interviewing witnesses and collaborating with peers on their theory of the crime. Some detective groups will prepare a presentation for a fictional district attorney. Toward the end of their unit, the students will present their theory of the crime and prove that the evidence they found proves the suspect's guilt.”

WHS Junior and English “detective,” Victoria Lin said she learned many things due to this hands-on and experiential learning that included communication between big groups of people, relying on the information from other student detectives through meetings and an organized digital log.

“We worked in small groups and discussed our information and theories,” Lin said. “When we made a conclusion based upon evidence, we would then report our findings to a webmaster who would enter it in our [digital log]. We had to work together to figure out what information was missing, what information was relevant, and what kinds of questions needed to be asked.”

Lake Peterson, a WHS Junior and an English “detective” said he enjoyed this educational unit because he is a curious person by nature. This event was like putting a puzzle together.

“I enjoy solving the how, what, when, where and why,” Peterson said. “We weren’t told anything about the crime scene, so we had to interview the witnesses and process all the information given to us the day of the event.”

Both Lin and Peterson agree that the mock crime scene curriculum was a fun way to learn by working outside of the classroom and with friends.

“A Mock Crime Scene has so many important things to offer students,” Lin said. “It gives insight into different aspects of CSI, experience with communication between large groups of diverse people, complex problem-solving in real-time, and a direct way to apply what we learned in classrooms.”

This project-based curriculum began in 2017 and has expanded into an inclusive community event that now includes members of the community. This year, those who agreed to play the roles as witnesses included Rev. Tim Higgins of St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, Raymond resident and active community member Tom Ewing and former WHS graduate Rosie Haibon.

“I'm just so encouraged that an idea that began with two teachers from math and English who were thinking about how we could create an authentic learning experience for our students has turned into a large school-wide community-building opportunity for English, math, science, and journalism students who are working alongside the local police department including our School Resource Officer, Seth Fournier,” Shetenhelm said. “Students who have only seen the police during difficult or traumatic events are working shoulder to shoulder with these authority figures.”

WHS Assistant Principal Vanessa Michaud said she is proud of the dedicated staff who has worked diligently on this project-based learning experience throughout the school year, noting their collaboration with the WPD.

“This collaboration provides students with the opportunity to develop teamwork, problem-solving, and communication skills and real-world applications to the content skills they are learning in their courses,” Michaud said. “I am so proud of the hard work and dedication our staff put into making this experience possible for our students. It is truly a great thing to see our students building relationships with each other, our staff, and our community partners.”

Over the next few weeks some detectives will be pulling together a presentation for the District Attorney with their theory of the crime.

“Hopefully, their work is detailed enough that the DA will accept the charges and charge the suspect,” Scott said.

Fournier and the WPD wish to give special thanks to SOS Towing of Windham, who offered their service free of charge. <