For the last several years Island Trees High School has been working on expanding their science program and has taken it one step further by adding robotics to the curriculum, which will be demonstrated on March 9-10 when the students participate in a competition For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST).

According to High School Principal Victor Longaro, "This is just another piece in the puzzle." He further noted, at a recent board of education meeting, that 10-11 years ago Island Trees High School, which had the same number of students that it currently does, had only four science labs. In those intervening years, as state science standards became more demanding and the need for state-of-the-art science labs increased, Island Trees added four additional labs, and updated the four original labs. Longaro explained that Robotics, which is now a part of the science curriculum, is really a hands-on course.

Longaro thanked Science Chair Laura Rigo for her role in making this course, which is designed to introduce the students to engineering and teach them that it can be fun, a reality and for introducing Island Trees to the FIRST Competition. In addition, according to Longaro, Rigo also involved Physics teacher Dr. Andrew Sass, an electrical engineer, technology teacher John Price, and Paul Gugliotta who is the lead engineer of codes and standards for KeySpan and five of his engineers in this endeavor.

Rigo explained that she attended the FIRST Competition last year at Suffolk Community College and found the energy and excitement level comparable to when Island Trees was in the football championships at Hofstra. "I was extremely impressed by what I saw," said Rigo. "It was very intense and very exciting and looking at the children was amazing, when I saw that, I said 'This is for us, this is right up our alley.'"

At last year's FIRST competition, Rigo met Gugliotta and explained to him that this is a competition that Island Trees High School would be interested in being involved with, but that she didn't know if there were any engineers in the community with whom the students could become partners. "That's the whole goal of this competition," explained Rigo. "To team up the children with real-life engineers." KeySpan not only donated $2,000 to the school for this competition, but also donated the time and talent of Gugliotta and his team of engineers.

Gugliotta, when he formally presented a check to Island Trees at the January board of education meeting, reiterated Rigo's comments about the goal of the project, stating, "The intent of the project is to encourage students to get interested in science and technology." Gugliotta further noted that KeySpan has recognized that students are not really getting involved in the science and technology fields and has found that there is actually a shortage of engineers and has had a hard time recruiting trained engineers. "We feel it is very important to recruit engineers in our own community," he added. "It's an exciting career and we just want to share our technology and let students get encouraged in the whole field of engineering and as our students and engineers work together, along with the teachers, we can accomplish that so I'm proud to work with Island Trees, with a great staff, and hopefully we will have a winning robot this year."

The Robotics team, under the supervision of Dr. Sass and Price, had six weeks to design, build and ship their robot, or RoboDawg as the Island Trees entry is known as, to a designated FIRST warehouse. In addition to building the robot, they also had to construct a crate in which to ship the robot. The challenge for this year's competition was revealed at the kick-off workshop in New Hampshire, where Price and Dr. Sass attended on Jan. 5-7. Along with schools from all over the country and 25 Long Island schools, Price and Sass brought back a robot kit. The kit has the potential to be developed into a robot that will perform tasks such as depositing balls into a goal and advancing over a movable bridge.

In addition to the donation by KeySpan, Island Trees High School was also the recipient of a grant from Computer Associates, which will be used toward the $5,000 entry fee for the competition.

The FIRST competition will take place on March 8 and 9 at Suffolk Community College's Brentwood campus, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Island Trees plans to make this competition a grand event with a pep band, cheerleaders, T-shirts, hats, and buttons. The Island Trees High School Science Department invites everyone to attend and cheer on the RoboDawg and the robotics team.