Congratulations to the CVU Robotics Teams!

 Here's a guest post from CVU Robotics Coach, Olaf Verdonk: 

Both of CVU's robotics teams competed at the Vermont State Robotics Championship held at Lamoille Union High School. Both teams performed with excellence!

The Varsity RoboHawks earned 1st place in the Inspire Award once again due to their outstanding work in STEM outreach to CVSD and the community and their ability to clearly and effectively communicate their engineering design process and growth both in writing and presentation. This most prestigious award qualifies them for the World Championships in Houston in April!

The JV RedHawks earned great reviews from judges as a rookie team and they earned the prestigious Judges Award and a 3rd place in the Connect Award.

In the competition the JV robot performed flawlessly and never had a breakdown!

The Varsity robot performed excellent in all areas and working together in an alliance with South Burlington's robot they were able to win the tournament! They sailed through the semis beating an alliance between Mater Christi and MMU. Winning best of three (in two) 193 to 68 and 103 to 55. They then went on to dominate the finals beating an alliance between Saxton River and Manchester! Winning best of three again in two 137 to 64 and 153 to 65.

EXTRA KUDOS go to James Haines for being selected as a FIRST Robotics Dean's List Finalist to represent Vermont at the World Championships! A well deserved honor!

Congratulations to both teams! 

Two CVSD Educators Recognized for Work Around Technology

Tim O'Leary

Tim O’Leary, currently serving as the Instructional Coach and  Curriculum leader at Shelburne Community School, was recently honored with the Frank Watson Award by Vita-Learn. Tim consistently demonstrates a remarkable dedication to his profession, approaching his work with unwavering professionalism and enthusiasm. His tireless efforts are aimed at enhancing student outcomes through information technology, and he fearlessly engages in initiatives that promote enhanced learning experiences.

As a 2020 Rowland Fellow, Tim, alongside Charlie MacFadyen from CVU, worked on developing an equitable K-12 computer science program across CVSD. Tim is a fervent advocate for educational equity and improved access to technology and computer science. He played a pivotal role in implementing First Lego League groups in all K-8 schools within our district.

In addition to his advocacy and active involvement, Tim is a dedicated member of the Computer Science Teachers Association and serves as a board member for the Vermont chapter. He has been instrumental in advocating for Vermont students' access to the Congressional App Challenge.

The Frank Watson Award, presented by Vita-Learn, recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to educational technology in Vermont, spanning local, regional, and state levels. This marks the third consecutive year that a CVSD educator has been honored with this prestigious award.

Charlie MacFadyen receiving his award

Charlie MacFadyen was honored with the CS Teaching Excellence Award at the recent New England regional Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) meeting. His recognition stems from his exceptional leadership in computer science (CS) both at CVU and district-wide over the past few years.

Charlie holds the role of digital learning leader at CVU and actively instructs computer science classes, contributing to the expansion of CS offerings at the school. Moreover, he dedicates his time to coaching the cyberpatriot team and the math league, while also assisting in the coordination of various events for these groups. His leadership style is characterized by thoughtfulness, creativity, and dedication to staff and students.

The CSTA's CS Teaching Excellence Awards are designed to acknowledge the exceptional teaching efforts of K-12 computer science teachers. Recipients of this award excel in inspiring students to explore the field of computer science, engaging them in learning rigorous standards-aligned CS content, and working towards broadening the participation of underrepresented students in computing.

STEAM Works at WCS

Allan Miller and Abbie Bowker, WCS educators, shared this guest post and video about a powerful STEAM project that took place in the latter part of the school year. View the video to learn more about the experience that integrated  many elements of STEAM, and which included ways to support our multi-lingual learners and families. 

This spring a small group of WCS 5th, 6th and 7th graders with a strong interest in art and design were invited to be part of a special pilot project that was part of a Vermont Agency of Education STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) grant. Nine Vermont middle and high schools were selected for the project, based on their original idea for addressing a local school or community problem. The WCS STEAM Team, led by Art Teacher Abbie Bowker and Design Tech Teacher Allan Miller, proposed that a group of students could improve school climate and teacher morale by having students create a multilingual entryway welcome and individual teacher name signs using laser and vinyl cutting technologies. This video is their project summary, highlighting the process the team used, as well as the positive impact their efforts had around the school. As a pilot it was extremely successful, and the team is exploring how it can continue to make the school community even more welcoming and inclusive through student STEAM creations.

Helicopter Lands at CCS

Sam Slater, a Charlotte Central School parent and CPT in the VT Army National Guard, flew a Blackhawk helicopter that landed in the soccer field today. All students were gathered to watch the landing and then smaller groups had the opportunity to take a closer look.

Several Guardsman were present to maintain safety during the landing and takeoff and to help answer questions. Students could explore the helicopter and learn more about the power of STEM education. They did a fabulous job responding and explaining many aspects of the science behind how helicopters work, some things about their roles with the National Guard, and how and when the helicopter is used.

Teacher, Shannon Spellman

Jen Roth, principal, and Courtney Krahn, assistant principal

Robotics in Action

We are thrilled to share the positive news about the expansion of robotics in CVSD. CVU's Robohawks have led the way on many levels. First, they garnered well-deserved attention for their own success as the Vermont Robotics Champions, which we wrote about last spring here. They traveled to Houston to compete in the FIRST Robotics World Championship. That was an amazing experience, where they connected with and learned from other robotics teams and represented CVSD well.

Also last spring, the Robohawks were awarded a grant to support robotics teams at our other schools. That grant provided materials for teams from each of our K-8 schools, enabling them to learn about, prepare, practice, and then participate in FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competitions. The Robohawks followed that up this year by visiting the K-8 teams and offered guidance, expertise, and enthusiastic support. 

Early this fall, teams were formed and coaches and volunteers were recruited. Funding for the coaches and some additional materials was provided by a number of district grants including a Rowland Foundation grant awarded to Tim O'Leary and Charlie MacFadyen and a CVSD Innovation grant. Tim O'Leary was especially instrumental in organizing and supporting the effort to get the FLL teams underway.

We are proud to say that every one of CVSD's K-8 schools had a team this year and they all participated in the Vermont FIRST LEGO League competition at the end of January. Some photos from that event and comments from coaches and students can be found below. 

From WCS Coach Allan Miller: 

It was great to see all 4 CVSD schools field successful teams this year and a huge thank you to Tim O’Leary and Charlie MacFadyen for sharing the Roland grant funds to help support the teams and Olaf Verdonk and the CVU Robohawks for their financial and technical support. This is probably the most successful full-district initiative I’ve seen in the past 10 years.

From SCS Coach Joey Adams: 

The SCS RoboCats finished up their first season with a resounding crescendo of teamwork and joy at the First Lego League Robotics State Championships at Norwich University on January 28th. The team was composed of over forty SCS students from grades 4th-7th who participated in the after-school sport from October to January. Their dedication to teamwork, building friendships, and having fun were on full display at the competition and throughout the season. The RoboCats worked hard on building robots to solve complex missions that involved learning and applying computer coding skills while working interdependently. The competition also included an intense judging panel that interviewed the RoboCats about their team roles, challenges, and what they learned as individuals and as a team. A quote from many RoboCats during the judging panel and feedback received about this new sport at SCS is best summed up: "...we worked so hard as a team and we learned so much but we also had so much fun while making new friends..." The RoboCats and the coaches can't wait for next season where we plan to roar with joy even louder together! 

From Tim Holcomb and CCS:

The kids worked really hard in completing several missions and getting their attachments to cooperate. With lots of innovation and creativity, they were proud of (and surprised) at how well they performed at the competition. As a team, we are looking forward to growing and continuing our program.

From HCS Student Jo Reiley:

On January 28, 2023, twenty-six teams gathered at Norwich University for the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) Statewide Championship. Among the teams was a group of ten HCS students from 4th through 8th grade gathered at Norwich to test their coding skills and teamwork. They raced against another team’s robot to complete a set of missions in the span of two and a half minutes. They had been preparing for this moment since October, starting out by just doing a couple of team building activities then slowly escalating into building complex Lego builds including wind turbines, as well as researching a chosen community problem to face for the Innovation Project.

FLL was originally founded by Dean Kamen in 1998. He worked with the owner of the LEGO group Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen to create a fun, STEM, teamwork emphasizing competition. Since then, teams from around the country have been working to code their robot and figure out what their Innovation Project is going to be about.

The team from HCS, or “Platinum Builders,” chose to do three different missions and got set on making those perfect. Their Innovation Project on the other hand was about turbines and their ability to collect energy. No one knew each other very well in the beginning but throughout the past couple of weeks, they have created quite a bond with each other. They hope that their team will grow next year and can’t wait to partake in the competition again.

- HCS coaches are Stephanie Bruning and Sunshine Ouimette

And finally, the Robohawks did it again and defended their title last weekend as Vermont state champions! Here's a description from coach Olaf Verdonk. 

CVU hosted the annual Vermont FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Championship this past weekend. There were 19 robotics teams from all over Vermont and this is the second year that CVU has entered TWO teams into the tournament; the varsity squad RoboHawks (#5741) and the JV squad RoboRedhawks (#22683). You may recall that last year the RoboHawks qualified for the World Championship...well this year both teams were outstanding!
This year CVU will be sending not one team to the World Championship, but BOTH teams!

The JV team managed to outplay the varsity team and led the way to the afternoon playoff stages. The JV team created an alliance partnership with the varsity team and together this CVU alliance won the tournament! The best of three finals were SUPER exciting with the CVU alliance winning the last match by only 4 points! The tournament win gives the JV team a berth for the World Championship in Houston, TX. Not to be outdone by the JV team, the varsity RoboHawks team were selected as the prestigious Inspire Award champions as the best team and robot in the tournament which qualified them for the World Championship in Houston, TX in April.

The RoboHawks won several other awards due to their outstanding work in all aspects of the competition. They vastly outscored all teams in the judged presentation, design, and engineering portfolio events of the tournament.

This document outlines all their awards, as well as description of the semi-final and final knockout stage matches.

RoboHawks:
Crawford Phillips, Jared Kennedy, Sam Yager, Violet Fennern, Jack Gourlay, James Haines, Addison Hoopes, Joe Jacobs, Jaden Parker

RoboRedhawks:
Clay Nicholson, Braden Griffin, Will Akerly, Gavin Blackburn, Jacob Graham, with support from Rhett Gardner and Sean Maynard

Congratulations and well done to all students, coaches, and volunteers! 

 

RoboHawks Get to Work and Support the Community

Here's a guest post from the CVU Robohawks team. 

This week the RoboHawks and JV Redhawk Robotics teams met and started to dig deep into brainstorming, designing and prototyping this year's bot after the season's release on the 10th, as well as hosted a workshop to introduce the CVSD middle school students to robotics.

The workshop hosted at CVU by the RoboHawks this past Tuesday for students and parents in the CVSD district focused on the FIRST Lego League (FLL) robotics competition. The event marks the beginning of the program after months of behind-the-scenes work and makes their goal a reality of helping each district middle school start an FLL robotics team. The RoboHawks aim to strengthen and encourage participation in STEAM programs within the community by promoting and supporting opportunities for middle school students. The workshop was tremendously successful, with excellent attendance and representation from every CVU sending school! The RoboHawks worked with students to begin their coding adventure in FLL robotics and gave parents a great overview of why the program is valuable and fun! This year’s challenge is power themed and includes tons of fun challenges to tackle. We can't wait to see FIRST Core Values grow in each district school and see where the program goes!

RoboHawks will be hosting another FLL workshop in the near future. For more information or if you would like to learn more about our team, check out our website, or feel free to contact us at cvu_robohawks_2022@cvsdvt.org.

CVU RoboHawks are State Champions!

Here's a guest post from Olaf Verdonk, CVU Design and Engineering Technology Teacher. He shares exciting news about the success of CVU's robotics team, the RoboHawks, this past weekend. 

The Vermont State Robotics Championships happened this weekend and...

CVU RoboHawks are the Vermont State Robotics Champions!
They have qualified for the FIRST Robotics WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS in Houston, TX !!!!!!

It was an exciting tournament in which CVU fielded TWO teams this year!

We had a Varsity (RoboHawks) and a JV team (RedHawk Robotics).

Due to COVID the field was a little smaller than usual, but the competition was fierce! There were a lot of capable teams and robots this year from all over Vermont.

Both CVU teams made it to the elimination rounds and an exciting semi final match featured the JV team against the Varsity team. The JV almost beat them!

The Finals was a "best of three" NAIL BITER! The RoboHawks (along with their alliance partner Bubbert Innovations from U-32) won the first match, but lost the second, forcing a tie-breaking third match. The RoboHawks Alliance won in a squeaker, 138 to 124 pts!! It was a super exciting final, one of the best tournaments in recent history.

The RoboHawks racked up several awards.

• Best Vermont Team (State Champions)
• 1st Place - Tournament Champions and Captains of Winning Alliance
• 1st Place - Inspire Award (actually the most prestigious award in a tournament)
• 2nd Place - Motivate Award
• 2nd Place - Design Award
• 3rd Place - Connect Award

NOW the hard work begins to figure out how to make the robot better and get everyone and everything out to Houston, TX April 20th-23rd.

From the RoboHawks: 

We would like to thank our sponsors, Kennedy Excavation and NDI, for helping us get this far. However, in order to proceed to this next level of competition, we are looking to raise $7,500 dollars. If you are interested in supporting us on our journey, please go to our website: http://www.robohawks5741.com/ or email our coach: overdonk@cvsdvt.org

The task of getting all RoboHawk team members, a robot, tools, and materials to keep the robot running through an intense 4-day competition is daunting and expensive!

Varsity (RoboHawks): Wolfie Davis, Lindsay Beer, Jared Kennedy, Sam Yager, Crawford Phillips, Jack Gourlay, Charlotte Tyler, Violet Fennern.

JV (JV RedHawk Robotics): Evan Mead, Jonas Hemmett, Joe Jacobs, James Haines, Jacob Graham, Sean Menard.

Recent Highlights from CVU's Visual Arts Department

Thank you to Abbie Bowker, Emily McLean, and Olaf Verdonk  for providing this update from CVU's Visual Arts Department and Design Technology. Take some time to look through the various collections of photos in the links below. We are thrilled to highlight the talented artists and their teachers! 

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Congratulations to our 2021 AP Art class. We are so proud of their perseverance and artistic accomplishments. Here is a sampling of their work from the semester: AP Art 2020-21.

Our AP Art class teamed up with our Graphic Design class to work on creating a mural for the Route 7 underpass on the Charlotte Town Link Trail. Thank you to the Charlotte Trails Committee for providing us with the opportunity to create a community-based art project and to Vermont Paint Company in Williston for providing us with supplies.

Here is a picture of the original design by Graphic Design student, Emma Allaire

and pictures of our AP Art students working on the mural this week. We plan to complete the mural next week.

MORE PHOTOS

AND

CVU Graphic Design Students have been hard at work for their last project of the year, all of which will have a ripple effect into our community. One of the biggest splashes will be for the Humane Society of Chittenden County who will have a set of great photo props for their annual fundraiser fun run! This was a collaboration between Design Technology II students Julia and Mark and their teacher Olaf Verdonk, and Graphic Design Students Hannah, Carly, Abby, and Addison and their teacher Abbie Bowker. Photos of the work in progress

AND

Speaking of Graphic Design, a shout out to Tyler Davis who used his class skills to design a special 50th Anniversary logo for the Shelburne Little League.

WOW!

Williston Central School Helps Out

In their attempt to fill UVM Medical Center's need for 1,000 face shields, Generator (Burlington's Maker Space) needed more PRUSA 3D printers. Williston Central School has just such a technical 3D printer--which is usually humming all March, printing out the scale models of historical Williston buildings for a 3D Vermont competition.

WCS librarian Ellen Arapakos answered the call, brought the PRUSA 3D printer over to Generator, set it up, and ran calibration tests so it was ready to print!

Amazing volunteers at Generator were busy using all the Prusa printers they could get and their laser cutter to manufacture face shields and intubation boxes.

It's nice to know that even when our school buildings are closed, the 3D printer can be busy printing PPE for UVM Health Care workers!

WCS is listed as a sponsor on Generator's COVID-19 Relief page. Way to go Ellen and WCS! We are #CVSDStrong. 

Learning From An Astronaut

Our last post was about classrooms connecting via Skype with Jane Goodall to learn about helping our planet. Today, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students used Skype for a powerful conversation with Ricky Arnold, a NASA astronaut who recently returned from 6 months on the International Space Station.

Tasha Grey, 6th grade teacher, and Allan Miller, digital learning leader, are returning to a unit they began last year by having students dig deep into current NASA research projects. They had put in a request to the astronaut office back in February seeing if any astronaut might be willing to Skype with CCS students to give them some first hand insights into life on the ISS and their role conducting these research projects.They found out late last week about the call today with Ricky Arnold. Ricky is one of three teachers that were selected as part of the Educator Astronaut program back in 2003 and his tour on the ISS was really focused on outreach and education.

The Charlotte students did a fabulous job asking questions they had prepared ahead of time. And Ricky responded in such a way that everyone attending could easily understand. After a question about what it takes to become an astronaut, he said that in order to be an astronaut or work for NASA, you should study math and science, find what you enjoy and bring that skill to NASA when you're ready. He said one of the most surprising and exhilarating things about going into space is the view of Earth from there. It helped him appreciate that "all of the history of life has taken place on this beautiful, fragile place we call home. We have to take care of it; it's all we have."

In response to questions the students asked, he shared that your body has to take time to adjust to life in space and also needs to do the same upon return to Earth. It took months for him to be comfortable going on hikes in the US after returning. He was not sure-footed nor comfortable in high places on hikes for a while. 

In terms of food, he mostly missed fresh fruits and vegetables. They grew some lettuce, but it didn't taste right. 

He closed by telling students that we all have gifts, some not yet uncovered, which you won't know you have until you try things. Allow yourself to face challenges and accept them. It it doesn't work, try again. 

It's great advice for all of us. 

WCS Earns 1st Place

Each year at the end of March, a special history-based event takes place at Vermont Technical College in Randolph. The event is called 3D Vermont. Teams of students from middle and high schools across Vermont share their learning and a piece of local history. They also compete in an effort to showcase their learning and design skills.

Each team studies a building in their town's history. The learn about the building, it's story, and it's place in the town. They interview people and do extensive research. After that, they use a program called Sketch-Up to design a 3D version of the building. A 3D printer is used to create and print a replica of the building from their design.

Williston Central School's Voyager team has sent a team to 3D Vermont for each of the last 4 years. Each year the group has learned about a different building in Williston. This group of students, led by teacher Aron Merrill and librarian Ellen Arapakos, met once a week after school for many weeks doing the necessary work to prepare for the event.

And today, it all came together for them. They shared their learning with judges via videos of their process and a physical display. They showcased their 3D model of the Thomas Chittenden/Clark Family Farm in Williston.  And they came away with a first place win for a middle school team.

Bravo to all of the students and their teachers for a job well done! Watch for them on tonight's TV news too.

Robots! Robots! Robots! This Saturday at CVU

Celebrate sport for the mind on February 23rd at CVU!

ALL day this Saturday from 9am to 5pm at CVU in the gym.

CVU's Robotics team (the Robohawks) are hosting this year's FIRST Robotics FTC Vermont State Championships! There will be 32 teams of high school engineering students from all over New England pitting their engineering, coding, and robotics skills against each other. It is an amazing opportunity to see STEM project-based and personalized learning in action! Every team will have a "pit" booth where they will be answering questions and presenting their work, and throughout the day teams will be competing head-to-head on the competition fields.

Here is a link to video of this year's challenge: Rover Rukus

Link to FIRST Robotics international program  (An international program serving grades K-12!)

Link to FIRST Robotics vision & mission

CVU Robohawks' website and Youtube channel.

Come support CVU Robohawks and awesome STEM work being done by high school students!