Scituate High School Robotics Team Showcases Achievements, Seeks Expanded Workspace
Team highlights innovative design and competition experiences while state legislators discuss education funding challenges
SCITUATE - May 19 - The Scituate High School Robotics Team, known as the Cyber Sailors, presents their recent accomplishments to the School Committee, highlighting their innovative robot design and the valuable skills students gain through the program.
"When I look back at the growth as engineers, as students, as young adults, and as people and friends, it's tremendous," team member Sumaya tells the committee. "It's a growth in maturity and creative problem solving."
The team, which includes approximately 30 students, showcases their robot featuring a unique shooter mechanism that earned them a creativity award at competition. Team members explain how the device launches balls into nets to score points, setting them apart from other teams that use different approaches.
"Most people place it and we decided to go [with shooting]," Samaya explains while demonstrating the robot's capabilities.
First-year team member Angelica describes the supportive environment that helped her overcome initial hesitation about joining. "I was terrified meeting every single day after school until dark," she says. "But the support systems that we have are real. There was never a moment where I believed that if I couldn't do something, then we were done for."
The team emphasizes how robotics connects to academic subjects, with members applying knowledge from calculus, computer science, and even marketing classes to their work on the robot.
"I feel like I can tie together a lot of what's going on inside the lab to the classroom," Angelica notes.
Team mentor Annemarie Galvin credits teacher Kerri Hallihan with creating "a home away from home" for the students. Galvin, who helped establish the program five years ago, describes it as "life-changing" and "real-life engineering."
Committee member Maria Fenwick suggests expanding outreach to younger students, particularly at the elementary level. "I think the earlier we can get into kids' heads that this is possible in the not too distant future, I feel like that's just so motivating and so inspirational for them and for their teachers," she says.
In other business, Senator Patrick O'Connor and Representative Patrick Kearney provide updates on state education funding and initiatives. They highlight challenges municipalities face with rising costs, particularly in health insurance and special education.
"We need to be a stronger partner to our municipalities," O'Connor says. "We need to fix some of the systems that we have in place that are broken."
The legislators discuss the Student Opportunity Act, and increases to the per-pupil reimbursement rates from $30 to $150, representing a five-fold increase. However, they acknowledge this still falls short of meeting districts' needs.
"They're not keeping pace with collective bargaining. They're not keeping pace with inflation. They're not keeping pace with health insurance in particular," O'Connor explains. "The funding formula is outdated."
O'Connor proposes increasing circuit breaker reimbursements for special education costs by 5 percent annually from the current 75 percent figure to eventually reach higher levels. He also advocates for reopening the foundation budget review process every three years instead of the current ten-year cycle.
Kearney highlights the state's commitment to universal school meals despite federal funding cuts. "We have seen that districts that have implemented this universal free school meals, it's been a game changer for students," he says. "It's really difficult to focus on academic teaching and classroom settings when you're thinking about what your next meal is going to be."
The legislators also discuss a financial literacy initiative that would incorporate age-appropriate financial education from kindergarten through 12th grade, including virtual simulations of banking and financial transactions.
"My hope is that we can continue to get this going," O'Connor says of the program, which would require a state mandate to ensure equitable implementation across all districts.
Other items addressed during the meeting include:
- A student proposal to bring back driver's education to Scituate High School
- Approval of a proprietary specification for extruded aluminum exterior wall panels for the Hadley Elementary School project
- Acceptance of a $2,410 donation from Sand & Water for t-shirt making machines for the high school store
- An update from the Human Resources Director on MTRS reporting, career fair attendance, and the implementation of electronic onboarding processes
- Discussion of a potential policy review process for the School Committee
The School Committee expresses appreciation to both the robotics team and the state legislators for their presentations, with Chair Nicole Brandolini noting the importance of programs like universal school meals and financial literacy education.