In recent years, Northwestern High School has been building a strong STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Engineering and biomedical courses are offered and the strength of this program inspired Romich Foundation to suggest participation in the FIRST Robotics program. Northwestern became the first Wayne County high school to participate in FIRST.

Romich Foundation has also supported robotics programs at Fairview High School (Fairview, PA), Melrose Elementary School (Wooster, OH) and Cornerstone Elementary School (Wooster, OH).

On January 28, 2012 the RoboHuskies team participated in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) regional competition in Columbus, OH. In February, several members of the team demonstrated their robot at the meeting of the Northwestern School Board.

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March 23, 2012

The RoboHuskies FIRST Robotics participation was at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) level, an appropriate starting point for a new high school team. The next level is FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). The Buckeye Regional FRC Competition was held at the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University this weekend.

The RoboHuskies team attended the event and connected with one of the roughly 60 participating teams, the Fairview (PA) High School Team 156 RPM (Robotics Plus Mayhem). Here team members are answering questions posed by judges.

Several of the RoboHuskie team members returned home with beads given out by members of the The Red Plague team.

Following the competition, the RoboHuskie team graciously provided transportation to the Fairview team, including their demo robot base, for the trip to the School of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University.

Sue, here helping to load part of the robot base (behind), expertly negotiated the nearly four miles to Case, then back to Cleveland State University, and then to the Embassy Suites Hotel where the Fairview team was staying before heading south.

At Case, Ian Charnas (left below), think[box] Operations Manager, provided a tour of the Sear electronics lab. Then the teams enjoyed a pizza dinner and adjourned to the Prentke Romich Collaboratory, a state-of-the-art fabrication facility available to undergraduate students across the university.

Back outside, the Fairview team set up their robot base and turned the controls over to the Northwestern students.

By the time the Fairview team was delivered to their hotel, it must have been approaching 10 PM, so Northwestern students must have arrived at their homes not much before midnight. This was a long day, but one that gave great value to everyone.

Thank you:

FIRST Robotics
Northestern High School and Don Clifton
Fairview High School and Mike and Roberta Bacik
Case School of Engineering and Ian Charnas

 

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Other STEM (Science - Technology - Engineering - Math) activity
at Northwestern Local School District

Through Project Lead The Way, Northwestern High School students are able to pursue biomedical and pre-engineering studies.

Click here for a brochure describing these programs.

 

Northwestern Middle School students have the opportunity to take a course that includes 3D drawing.
They recently designed CO2 powered dragsters.