{"id":249466,"date":"2017-04-03T06:06:59","date_gmt":"2017-04-02T20:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=249466"},"modified":"2017-04-03T06:06:59","modified_gmt":"2017-04-02T20:06:59","slug":"micronesian-students-head-intl-robotics-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/micronesian-students-head-intl-robotics-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Micronesian students head to int\u2019l robotics contest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Team<\/a>
Team 1 of the Yap Catholic High School are winners of the 2016 Habele Robo League Championship.(Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The famously traditional island of stone money is sending top students to a high tech global robotics competition.<\/p>\n

Students from 153 nations will gather in Washington, D.C. this summer for the international high school robotics Olympics. Few will have traveled as far\u2014geographically or culturally\u2014as the Robo League team from Yap.<\/p>\n

The first Global Challenge is a worldwide robotics challenge. Small student teams design, build, and compete complex robots from simple parts. The work demands hands-on mastery of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills. Featuring teams from across the planet, it also serves as a forum for students to meet and partner with diverse international peers.<\/p>\n

Students in Yap\u2014a remote Micronesian island most famous for its stone money\u2014established their own Robotics League in 2011, holding Micronesia\u2019s first public exhibition in summer of 2012. Organized by the U.S.-based non-government group \u201cHabele,\u201d the Yap Robo League remains the only coordinated multi-year robotics program in the Central or Western Pacific. It has grown and thrived through a defining partnership with a robotics team at Chaminade College Preparatory School, in Los Angeles, California. In-kind gifts of time and talent, as well as private donations and local fundraisers entirely finance the league.<\/p>\n

The all-star team headed to the first Global Challenge is composed of three high school seniors from Yap Catholic High School, winners of the 2016 Habele Robo League Championship. They will spend nearly a week in the US. capital, participating in a lavish international opening ceremony, a series of robotics exhibitions, competitions, and eliminations, as well as tours and team building exercises with students from around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 2011, hardworking students, educators, and community members have grown and sustained one the Pacific\u2019s most exceptional \u2014and most popular\u2014educational programs,\u201d said Alex Sidles, a Habele director. \u201cInvitation to the Global Challenge is just the latest testimony to the accomplishments and ambitions of the Yap Robo League, and its innovative focus on competition, incentives, and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The many tiny islands of Micronesia are home to a semi cash economy, primarily comprised of subsistence agriculture and fishing. Their remoteness and relative lack of resources limits formal economic growth and opportunities. However, they place great emphasis on preserving cultural practices while learning modern technology. Widely studied in the West, Yapese stone money, or “rai,” are an example. The large, circular stone disks have been used for centuries as currency. The system relies on oral histories of ownership because the carved stones are too large to move.<\/p>\n

One project to sustain traditional practices is \u201cWaa\u2019gey,\u201d an after-school cultural skills program. Many Yap Robo League students participate, receiving instruction on-campus and after-school from Waa\u2019gey mentors in centuries-old Carolinian carving and sailing techniques. \u201cThere are many connections between the techniques of canoe building and celestial navigation and the skills students develop with these robots,\u201d said master navigator Larry Raigetal. \u201cThe outside world\u2019s increasing focus on so-called STEM instruction is, for us, something of a return to the way we\u2019ve always understand knowledge and building. I hope our young people take that insight with them to Washington.\u201d (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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