Greater Hershey Area townlively.com
NOVEMBER 6, 2024
ALSO SERVING HUMMELSTOWN & MIDDLETOWN
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL XXXVII • NO 18
Local robotics team wins all-girl competition BY FRANCINE FULTON
BY FRANCINE FULTON
The team celebrates its victory at the GirlP.O.W.E.R. competition in Flourtown.
and shoots them.” The new competition season will begin in March, but the theme of the game will be announced in January 2025. “We have eight weeks to design, build and test a brand-new robot,” noted Walker. “We spend the offseason learning and practicing.” W ith a few breaks in the summer and during the holiday season, the group meets regularly. “ We meet Monday and Wednesday evenings and s o m e t i m e s o n S a t u r d a y s ,” Walker said. “Since we went to GirlP.O.W.E.R . in September we were in competition the next two weekends, and we are always looking to improve. We had new kids that started this fall, so everyone is working on something.” He said the team members complete tasks based on their strengths. “People gravitate to
one thing,” he said. “Some people will help out in other areas, but we have people that just program, people that do the design work and people that do the electrical work.” Walker is proud of the girls who participated in the recent competition, which is designed to assure that STEM programs are accessible to both girls and boys. “We hope that the publicity and success of GirlP.O.W.E.R. and competitions like it give more young women the confidence to succeed in robotics and beyond,” he stated. For more information about the team, visit www.team2539 .com or www.facebook.com/ FIRSTTeam2539. The team is currently in need of volunteer coaches and sponsors. Interested individuals may contact the team at kryptoncougars2539@gmail .com for more details.
Middletown First Church of God, 245 W. High St., Middletown, will present a free Family Fun Night on Friday, Nov. 8, from 6 to 8 p.m. Fall-themed activities, which will take place in the church fellowship hall, will include games, a story time and crafts. Hot dogs will be provided for dinner, and there will be a caramel apple bar for dessert. “We will have apple slices that you can put caramel on with (toppings such as) chocolate chips, sprinkles and coconut, and you can choose your toppings,” noted church member Patty Kuharic, one of the event organizers. Hands-on activities will include a pumpkin ring toss, apple tic-tac-toe and a variety of crafts. “We will eat first. Then, there will be stations and at some point in time, close to 7 p.m., there will be a story time,” said Kuharic. “(Children) will rotate from station to station, then to the story time and then stations again.” In keeping with the event theme, “Thankfulness,” attendees will be asked to jot down what they are thankful for. “There will be a large paper tree on the wall with a trunk and spread-out branches,” said Kuharic. “The kids and their parents will each be able to make a colored leaf at one of the stations and then write something they are thankful for before they attach it to the tree. We will hopefully have a nice, full tree.” See Family Fun Night pg 2
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“ T he theme was all about STEM and the music business. Our game was a multi-level game,” Walker explained. “(The robot) had to pick up a (musical) note. We had to get those notes and shoot them into the speaker to get points.” There was also an opportunity for teams to earn extra points by having the robot shoot notes into an amplifier. Since it was an offseason event, GirlP.O.W.E.R. was not part of FIRST. However, the team took its regular competition robot to the competition, as well as a second one built by younger students on the team. One of the robot’s operators at the GirlP.O.W.E.R. competition was Rikhita. “I operated the second robot. My friend had a preference to be a driver,” she said. “A driver moves and rotates the robot, and the operator picks up the notes
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ven though the competition season does not officially start until next year, members of the Krypton Cougars Robotics Team 2539, composed of students from Palmyra and Hershey, stay busy throughout the year by taking part in various contests. Most recently, the female members of Team 2539 took their record of offseason success to Flourtown, where they participated in the annual GirlP.O.W.E.R. (Preparing Outstanding Women Engineers through Robotics) competition hosted by Team 433. All-female drive teams competed at the event, which is designed to promote women in robotics and STEM fields overall. According to David Walker, lead mentor, the Krypton Cougars entered two robots into the competition, with both finishing as alliance captains. According to www.firstinspires.org, an alliance is a group of teams that compete together, and an alliance captain is the leader of a team that selects other teams to join their alliance. “Their primary robot finished as the No. 1 team overall,” Walker reported. “In the playoffs, Team 2539’s secondary robot achieved multiple upset victories in order to win the competition over some of the strongest teams in FIRST Mid-Atlantic.” Team 2539 takes part in the FIR ST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition program. FIRST teams design, build and operate a robot that is created to complete a specific task. For 2024, the FIRST Robotics Competition game was called Crescendo and it centered around music.
Church to present Family Fun Night