Students took on Mother Nature
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

During the robotics competition, students work on the engine of their lobster trap boat on the shores of Crocker Pond. JOURNAL PHOTO/CAITLYN KELLEHER

The wind gusts created white-caps and a heavy tide with the waters of Crocker Pond as the weather fronts changed.

Despite occasional sand storms, students focused on how to keep the engines from burning out as their creations had to compete with the elements.

The students focused how to battle the tides and the heavy winds when they stood on the beaches in Westminster on May 23, as the prepared their lobster boat to set sail.

The members of the Robotics Club as well as the fabric and the engineering classes faced off more against Mother Nature as they set about in the second Robotics Competition.

The goal of the project was to get each team to build a machine that would walk across the beach to the water (a task accomplished by all); to swim into the pond (another task accomplished by all); and to capture the lobster pot and bring it back to shore (a task prevented by Mother Nature).

"There is always some problem to solve," said David Lantry, the Oakmont teacher that oversaw the project.

The students of Oakmont, Murdock and Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical schools each competed in the competition was more of a face off between the students and Mother Nature.

Each school took on a different design to create their boat. For the students from Oakmont students in the engineering classes designed the pieces.

"Every single piece you see on that boat has been designed on the computer," he said.

The parts were then built by the fabric class and assembled by the Robotics Club. Many of the students overlapped and worked on many aspects of the project.

All the members that worked on the project were on hand to see the boat lunch. Lantry said seeing the project out in the field, or in this case the pond, helps the students.

"It makes them better engineers," he said. "It makes them better designers."