NHS robotics team places at state meet

Information Technology, or IT, is not just for the “nerdy” kids. Newton High School’s Robotics Team proved that those stereotypes do not apply. Team members are involved in many high school activities, and found enough time to take a second place at the recent IT Olympics statewide competition at Iowa State University in Ames.

Competition in the IT Olympics can be in three categories: Cyber Defense, Robotics and Gaming Design. This was the third year of competition for the Newton team in Ames. In the previous years, the team competed in Cyber Defense, but this year a Robotics team also competed, and they took home a second place trophy, competing against 23 other teams from across Iowa.

On April 20 and 21, the students took part in 10 competitions each day, including real-time challenges, in which they had three to four hours to build a robotic program. Another program required solving logic problems.

In the cyber defense portion of the competition, team members were required to construct a Web site and protect the information on it from Internet attacks. The students set up their own cyber security lab at their high school, a simulated corporate environment with all required services, such as e-mail, Web and programming, as well as having end-users and an Internet connection. Their competition networks fall under attack by graduate students and IT professionals.

In addition, the students were required to perform a community service project at their school, and the students chose to turn the tables on their instructors, teaching them a number of IT programs. They taught the Newton High School teachers how to use Google Earth, how to create an I-Tunes podcast, embedding You Tube videos into Power Point presentations, and to create their own ning Websites. The Newton team was awarded third place for their community service project, out of 40 teams.

The robotics team’s instructor, Jody Morgan-Peters said she would use her new-found knowledge to create a Web site to allow students to catch up on classroom instruction they may have missed.

Although this year the Robotics team received no outside mentoring, next year the plan is to have mentors from Iowa Telecom. Morgan-Peters said she hoped to have enough students in the club to compete in all three divisions of the IT Olympics.

“They practice after school, and these are all busy kids,” Morgan-Peters said. “Finding time is really difficult.” But, she said it was rewarding working with the intelligent students who are really interested and want a challenge.

“They really have to think and to solve problems,” she said. “Iowa State University wants students to think about IT as a career, and they are trying to dispel the idea that it’s only the nerdy kids.”

ISU also is trying to encourage more girls to get involved in engineering programs; in short, to lose the stereotypes associated with IT, robotics and engineering.

John Jennings can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 425 or via e-mail at jjennings@newtondailynews.com.