A Blind Brook High School Student Publication Issue #4 Starting A New Period In Blind Brook Schools

By: Ben Messafi

into an auditorium. Also, students will be able to participate in STEM activities similar to those that the fab lab offers in the High School.

January 24th marked the celebration of the completion of the Ridge Street School construction, and the grand opening of the new parts of the school. A ribbon cutting with the superintendent and board of education was held, along with tours for community members to see the time, dedication, and money that was put into the extension of the school.

The celebration was a success. Attendees were able to see the new atrium, main office, classrooms, and “courtyard,” an outdoor area where teachers and students can participate in activities beneficial to their learning experience. However, what is most impressive about the new construction is its ability to address many of the desires of teachers, students, and parents in the district. New furniture with wheels, along with more storage units in classrooms, address the concerns teachers had in their classrooms. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in new activities they did not have access to prior to the construction. One notable addition is the cafetorium: a cafeteria that also contains seats to turn

The largest relief for the district after the grand opening was the approval of a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy for the new kitchen. Over the next few weeks, the new hightech kitchen equipment will be shipped into the school, and new kitchen staff will be trained. Superintendent Colin M. Byrne stated in an update to the school on February 2nd, that he is working to accelerate the kitchen service process, and continues to prioritize the issue these next few weeks. Finally, for the first time since the pandemic, Ridge Street School stu- dents will soon have access to purchase hot lunches at school. While BBHS students will not be directly impacted by some of the new extensions put in place, the end of the construction marks an important milestone in the Rye Brook community. With these new developments, the Blind Brook school district is continuing to prioritize the introduction of STEM into the classrooms, and ensure that students are in a clean and safe environment to learn and prepare for their futures in college and beyond. The district also posted videos of the opening ceremony with some views of the new construction, available on the district website.

Jellyfish Float to the Top at Regional TournamentLook to Sting Competition at Championship

The Robotics team, AKA the Jellyfish, have won four different awards at the Utica qualifying robotics competition on January 22 and have qualified for the FIRST regional championship event on March 18.

The team has been a member of the Tech Challenge competition run by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technologies (FIRST) since the team’s found-

By: Alex Thompson

ing in 2010. FIRST is a robotics competition where high school teams build, program, and drive a robot to complete various objectives on a game field. This year’s FIRST Tech Challenge is known as Power Play. Teams are tasked with building a robot to stack cones on parts of an enclosed stage incorporating junctions, substations, and terminals.

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Jellyfish Float to the Top at Regional TournamentLook to Sting Competition at Championship

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The Jellyfish robot is controlled by two drivers, one controlling movement, and the other controlling the claw that is used to grab the cones and place them on poles.

During the start of a tournament, an alliance is formed between two teams with each of their robots helping and competing as an alliance. These teams and the rival alliance they face are paired at random for the first five “qualifying rounds” of the tournament. “We can be against upwards of 20 different teams all around New York state,” said Michael Oh, Build President of the team. “In the regional championship, we will be competing with the best teams around New York.”

In a round, alliances aim to score points by placing cones on the poles throughout a field. At the end of a round, the alliance with the most points wins. Each team will then be

By: Alex Thompson

paired with a new team member and opposition for the next round. In the finals of a tournament, after five qualifying rounds, the four robotics teams with the most points select two partner teams to form a final alliance which competes against the other three alliances.

“Working on a team is always fun because it’s not just whose team is better,” Relations Officer, Taka Kimura, explained. “Your team could have worse robots than the rival team, but you might have better synergy which allows you to win in pretty cool ways,” Kimura said.

Despite ending with success, the Utica tournament did not always go according to plan. “Utica had a lot of ups and downs,” Jellyfish Programmer Taira Nonami recalled, “the night before the tournament, a key part of our robot cracked.” While a break or crack in a robot can mean failure for many teams, the Jellyfish were pre- pared for such an incident.

A model explaining the standard alliance between teams. The blue team in this model work together and use their two robots to compete against the red team in a game.

“Our team is able to repair any problem that comes our way, so after finding the problem, we grouped together, got what we needed, and repaired our robot before the tournament,” Nonami said.

Out of the 23 teams at the tournament, the Jellyfish placed 18th and were not selected for a final alliance in the last round, seemingly ending their tournament run there. “I think a lot of our issues came from unfortunate scenarios like teammates [alliances] who we didn’t synergize well with,“ President Elliot Zheng said, “but I think the judges were able to see through just the results and look at the strengths of our team like our teamwork and hard work.”

Despite the results, the Jellyfish spirit did not wane as they cheered on teams in the finals and prepared for the next events in their season. During the closing ceremony, the Jellyfish won the coveted Inspire award. “I think our spirit is what's good about our team,” Programmer Matthew Laterza said. “It’s the thing that keeps us optimistic, even when things like placing 18th happen, and I think the judges rewarded us for it.”

A picture of this year’s robot for the Jellyfish, named “Grace” after computer scientist Grace Hopper. On a model game field, the robot is labeled on the side with the team’s FIRST Tech Challenge number 4654, as they are the 4654th team to join the organization’s competition.

At the end of a FIRST tournament, teams are able to qualify for the next stage of the competition in two ways: winning the tournament, or earning specific awards for strengths that their team displays. The Jellyfish advanced to region- advanced to regional championships by winning placements for four of these rewards: Inspire (second place), Control award (first place), Motivate award (second place) and Think award (third place).

“I was very proud,” Robotics Secretary Fiona Chen said of the experience, “everything worked out for us, even though we had some unfortunate circumstances with the qualifying rounds.” Pride doesn’t always come in win-

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