Thursday, January 4, 2018 • Vol. 133, No. 27 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1
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Oregon Observer The
Stories to watch 2018
Continued eye on growth
Senior Collin Braatz and junior Lucas Hess make some mid-competiton adjustments to their SumoBot.
Photo by Scott De Laruelle
Engineering a future Robot battles just part of learning in OHS class Unified Newspaper Group
The tension was palpable as teams of engineering students assembled their robot warriors in the ring to prepare for battle. Like metal sumo wrestlers, the students’ “SumoBot” machines went at it, trying to knock the other out of the circle (think TV’s“BattleBots,” but less pyrotechnics) during a class tournament last month. Team members either hooted and hollered in pride or shook their heads in shame, as the din of noisy robot battles echoed through the OHS building trades area. Some matches went right down to the wire, with twirling metal competitors giving as good as they got. Others were over quickly due to a design flaw or oversight, but thankfully for competitors, teams got several chances to improve their SumoBot in the ring. Not only do students get to do fun things in Jon Fishwild and Ryan Stace’s Principles of Engineering class – like building battle robots – they learn how to work as part of a team through a long, and often rigorous, process. Being able to work collaboratively is a skill of growing value in a changing workforce, something both Fishwild and Stace said will be helpful for
students as they prepare for that next we get now, part of their focus is, challenge – even if they don’t end up ‘Hey, this sounds like a field I might be interested in and this is kind of the building battle robots for a living. first shot at trying this out.’” Changing skills, focus Either way, it’s a positive, as he The semester-long class (offered sees it. “We tell them if you go through this both semesters) is a collaboration between the vocational and science class and decide, ‘Now I’m even more departments for two decades; it’s interested in engineering than I was one of the few upper level courses at before,’ great – success,” Fishwild the school taught by two instructors. said. “If you say, ‘You know what – Originally designed to “catch a mix I thought engineering was for me but of kids and allow them to work col- there are a lot of things I didn’t like,’ laboratively on projects,” Fishwild – great; you just saved yourself a lot said the class has since adapted to stu- of trouble.” dents’ changing skill sets. “Early on, (we’d have) a couple Robot Wars kids who knew how to make things, Last month’s SumoBot competia couple who knew how to apply sci- tion was one of the highlights of the entific principles and together they course, and the longest project of the could come up with a pretty good semester. Students worked for more solution to whatever (was) thrown at than six weeks creating the robots – them,” Fishwild said. “(Now), some first from kits, then gradually adding have never used a drill press or sol- weaponry, defenses and personal flair dered before, so it provides some as time permitted. opportunity to get that side of the “We expect them to go further than engineering process.” what the kit is designed to do,” FishStudents’ goals have evolved, as wild said. “Sometimes they’ll build well, with many already thinking of lifting mechanisms; one year we their futures. had a shell that rotated and knocked “(Before), there were kids who things out of the way.” wanted to take a class where they The competition provides a “level were building things and not neces- playing field for students that gives sarily have any interest in engineering,” Fishwild said. “A lot of the kids Turn to Engineering/Page 10
Stories to watch 1. Planning the library 2. OSD braces for growth 3. STEAM expands 4. Planning a senior center 5. Expanding to the west 6. Next target: youth center increase in its student population over the next decade or so, primarily because of growth in Fitchburg. Within the village, developers are preparing to add a 70-acre area on the west side that could bring hundreds of new homes. Some of those issues – namely the housing d eve l o p m e n t s a n d t h e
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Spring election
Limited choices in local races Voters in Brooklyn are the only ones in the Oregon School District who will get local choices in this year’s spring elections. While there will be at least one new member of the Oregon Village Board and the Oregon School District’s board, both are filling seats left open by departing incumbents. The towns of Oregon and Rutland will hold nominating caucuses later this month to determine candidates there.
Brooklyn, however, will have five candidates to fill three open seats, and only one of them is an incumbent, though another is a former village president and one is a former trustee.
Village of Oregon The make-up of the Village Board will change only slightly following the April election, with just one new trustee joining the board – Amanda Peterson.
Turn to Election/Page 10
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SCOTT DE LARUELLE
The Oregon area is hopping. Every one of our likely stories of the year involves growth within the Oregon School District in one way or another, continuing the theme in our top stories of 2017. The village is knee-deep in planning for a library and just starting to discuss a new senior center. A nonprofit group is working on building a new youth center and has already reached 80 percent of its million-dollar goal. And the school district is still coming up with ways to make use of its new facilities for STEAM education at the high school and middle school. Behind it all is the reason for all those increasing needs – more population on the way. The school district is preparing for a 50 percent