THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605170478
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
It was a made-up problem that sounded real-life: An elderly woman who lives alone constantly forgets to take prescribed medicine, and she refuses her family's urging to move into a retirement home where someone could remind her to take it.
Two high school freshmen in George Skena's robotics class put their heads together and designed a solution - an automated medication dispenser, complete with timer, lights, alarms and a tape-recording that alerts the woman to take the medicine and advises her on how much she needs.
Educators talk about the need to teach students how to be critical thinkers and problem solvers. In the extra-credit, after-school class at the Norfolk Technical Vocational Center, Skena's scientifically inclined charges gobble up complex problems like an afternoon snack.
As schools nationwide scramble to keep pace with the educational needs of students in an increasingly technical society, Skena's students are pushing the boundaries.
The medicine dispenser, for example, has drawn inquiries from a pharmaceutical group that would like to develop a robotic pharmicist, Skena said.
``Actually, as far as we know we're the only program of its kind in the U.S., in which students actually run it, choose their own projects,'' Skena said. ``Our purpose is not make little scientists out of these kids. It's more to create an environment where critical thinking can take place.''
Even though they're still in high school, some of their ideas, if translated into actual products, could make life easier or better, he said.
Two students, for example, are working on a robotic-controlled craft able to sample pollution levels in local rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. Skena said officials with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, who now send people in boats to collect samples, are interested in how well the students' project will work.
Several students are working on a laser communications project that would transmit radio signals via light waves rather than sound waves. Lasers are faster and can transmit more information.
``Since we're the next generation, we're going to figure out how to do this, and maybe get ourselves some nice jobs,'' said Christina Lee, a Maury High senior working on the project.
They are among the brightest students in the city school system, in the country even, and they have three walls of awards from national competitions to prove it.
More than 50 students applied for Skena's class last fall, but only 20 made the cut. Most scored in the top 5 percent of U.S. students on the science portion of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills.
While other teens spend afternoons hanging at the mall or watching TV, some of Skena's students put in three hours a day working on their projects - after pulling a full day of academic classes at their home school.
They sit absorbed at Pentium-based personal computers writing software programs and querying Internet sources for help. They talk about ideas that could revolutionize business and industry.
Some of their projects are just fun, gee-whiz intellectual workouts, like a computer-run sumo robot - as in Japanese sumo wrestler - that goes head-to-head with other robots.
``It's fun - that's basically it,'' said Lee. ``There's not too many people at my school with this opportunity, so why not take advantage of it?''
Last month, Skena packed 18 students into a rented van and station wagon to drive to Michigan for a national contest sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. The event drew about 600 students from 47 schools in 13 states. Skena's students, the only ones in Virginia to participate, came back with two first-place and one second-place awards.
Seniors Timothy Vango of Norview High and John Bailey of Granby High won first for developing a computer-run assembly line for painting automobile bumpers. Such technology is commonly used in the auto industry.
Booker T. Washington High junior Aaron Berman won a first place in the competition with a palm-sized robotic mouse. Equipped with a small battery-powered circuit board, the mouse moved through a 4-foot-square maze with the aid of a sensor arm.
``It could possibly be used for navigation or surveillance in spaces too small for a human or a larger robot to go through,'' Berman said.
Seniors Brian Cortez of Lake Taylor High and Patrick Nichols of Booker T. Washington grabbed second place with their sumo robot, which navigates with the aid of a computer-run sensor that detects objects.
``This is like hands-on experience,'' said Cortez, who plans to attend Virginia Tech and study computer science. ``I love tinkering with electronic devices and computer programs.''
The robotics class is part of NORSTAR, an acronym for Norfolk public schools' Science and Technology Advanced Research. Besides robotics, NORSTAR includes a space-based class.
The space program, taught by Joy Young, has put the city school system on the map: Young's students, working with NASA engineers, designed an experiment
to visually measure sound waves in near-weightless conditions that NASA sent up on the space shuttle Discovery two years ago. Another of Young's class projects is slated for a shuttle trip next winter.
Skena said his students have made a name for the robotics program with their award-winning work at competitions.
``There are some schools,'' Skena said with a wicked grin, ``that won't come to the contest because we're going to be there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
L. TODD SPENCER
Aaron Berman's robotic mouse won a national competition for the
Booker T. Washington junior.
by CNB