BEYOND the BOOKS
Robot Prevailed Over ‘Nature’s Fury’ By michael pastore ’20
‘ better Down where’s wetter, unDer the sea’ During the past 10 years, o’neill has visited with more than 10,000 children in 350 schools throughout the u.S. At Brunswick, he offered a slide show and 45-minute presentation
The Brunswick middle School Robotics Team,
focusing on ocean exploration, marine
the meow mixers, has had a great year. The
biology, photography, and the writing
team’s 10 members are Zane Bhatti ’21, Robert
process.
Sprung ’20, Charles Heath ’20, Jamie meindl
“michael patrick o’neill skillfully
’20, Eric meindl ’20, mike pastore ’20, Will
and seamlessly spoke to four separate
george ’19, Will Frauen ’19, Will maynard ’19,
grade levels in a manner that was
and Ian murray ’19 — all who took part in a statewide competition.
What and who exactly is lurking under
The theme of this year’s event was “na-
the waves? lower Schoolers received
ture’s Fury,” and the challenges were based on
an ultra-clear glimpse of life below the
natural-disaster scenes made out of legos.
sea’s surface when famed photog-
The robot had to fix broken tree branches,
rapher and writer michael patrick
lift houses to avoid flooding, and save people
o’neill spoke in Camuto Auditorium
who needed help. not only did the team’s
in early october.
robot have to solve challenges, but each team
o’neill, whose work is comprised
had to choose a natural disaster and create a
of a spectrum of underwater images
solution to the problem.
from around the globe, promotes a
We chose to try to stop wildfires.
greater appreciation for the natural
The robot our team made together was
world, especially the oceans and their
originally slightly unstable, but still got us a
thoughtful and engaging,” said Ally Roach (p ’22), the BpA Assembly Coordinator. The boys had the opportunity to pre-purchase personalized copies from the author’s seven titles (and one poster). The beautiful books were well received and continue to be ordered. Due to overwhelming popularity at Brunswick, o’neill’s Let’s Explore Sharks was back ordered.
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inhabitants.
ticket to the state finals. We improved the design so it could do better and score more points. The robot received points based on the number of challenges it could complete in 2 minutes 30 seconds. If everything goes perfectly, the robot can score up to 405 points — but on an average run it gets 350 points. After weeks of research, we learned that millions of acres in the united States are burned each year, and millions of dollars are
To peruse an online gallery of O’Neil’s
spent. Eventually, we created something we called the “Fire Trap,” a long material covered in fire retardants, with borax (a strong flame retardant) as the main ingredient. It would be rolled over itself over and over, and once unrolled surround areas in need of protection. It can be used around entire communities to keep people and their homes safe. In the competition, Brunswick’s middle School team placed in the Top 15 statewide.
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TIMeS oF BrUNSwICk • wINTer 2013–2014
photographs, visit www.mpostock.com.