These kids would rather work on robotics
By B.C. Manion
Fourteen-year old Ryder Fitzpatrick said he was probably 3 or 4 years old when he began taking things apart to try to figure out how to put them back together.
Matthew Andresen said he, too, was just about 4 when his dad gave him a radio-controlled car.
The gift was a hit, said Andresen, now 14, “I played with it all of the time.”
And, Marissa Schiereck, 15, traces her interest to building things back to her elementary school days when her dad taught a First LEGO League Team.
Now, the three home-schoolers from Land O’ Lakes, Northdale and Oldsmar are members of FTC Team Duct Tape, a community-based robotics team.
They and their teammates, Bennett Nichols and Mark Adsit, of Gates High in Lutz, and Josh Francis, of Mitchell High, are gearing up to compete at the FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach on March 1 and March 2.
The team is in its fifth season, and, while the team members have changed, Team Duct Tape has a proud legacy, said Terri Willingham, founder and president of Learning is For Everyone, the nonprofit sponsor of the squad.
Team Duct Tape has competed at the state championship ever since its inception. It also has advanced to the FIRST World Championship twice in the last four years, Willingham said.
“We’ve been competitive with the magnet schools and the well-financed schools as a community team,” Willingham said.
This year, the team qualified to compete for the state championship by ranking among the top 24 of the state’s 80 teams.
Willingham said the team forms around September and generally wraps up its competitions in the spring.
Team members gather every Saturday throughout the season for four to five hours. Initially, they build and learn to operate their robot. As the season goes on, they make revisions based on what they have learned. They also take part in competitions and public demonstrations.
Fitzpatrick described how the team gets started each season.
“First we look at the video that gets sent out of what our tasks are, the challenges.
And then from there, we just brainstorm. We come up with a whole bunch of different ideas. And we find out which ones are the best,” said Fitzpatrick, who is interested in pursuing a career in videography or robotics engineering.
Team members discuss the pros and cons of each option, and then vote to decide which to pursue, Andresen said.
Besides learning how to build a competitive robot, team members have a chance to develop a number of other skills, Willingham said. She added that in a single season they cover many scientific and engineering skills.
“They’re using sophisticated engineering tools at a young age, and they’re using them in an applied manner. They can actually see how these things are used. It’s not just a classroom setting. It’s applied learning,” Willingham said.
They keep a notebook charting their activities and progress through the season.
The notebook must be meticulous, Schiereck said.
The experience helps kids to hone their skills and develop new ones, Fitzpatrick said.
“You learn a lot about how to work with others and how to use different tools,” Fitzpatrick said.
In designing their robot, for instance, they used Computer Assisted Design to figure out what parts they needed, weight-bearing capabilities and so on, Fitzpatrick said.
As their experience increases, members are becoming more confident, said Andresen, who is interested in a career in civil or structural engineering.
The name Team Duct Tape is a bit of a misnomer as the team isn’t using duct tape in its designs.
But Willingham said that’s the name the original team came up with, and it has stuck.
Duct tape has a reputation for being able to fix anything, which reflects the team’s “spirit of ingenuity,” she said.
Being on Team Duct Tape is a blast, said Schiereck, who is interested in biomechanics.
“It gets you excited about engineering, math,” Schiereck said.
“You learn how to make robots,” she said, something kids otherwise rarely get a chance to do.
Team Duct Tape is seeking sponsors to help cover the $2,500 in expenses they’ll incur in travel, lodging and competition expenses to participate in the state championship at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. Businesses, individuals or organizations that would like to help support the team should call (813) 728-2822 or visit www.TeamDuctTape.com.
