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Battlefield dominates at SeaPerch
Battlefield's success at the SeaPerch competition this past weekend should not come as much of a surprise.
After all, the faculty and upperclassmen at Battlefield were the ones that did the pre-game work, from designing the event itself to making a prototypical submersible robot.
Yet, like all the 150 participants, the freshman Bobcats who gathered around the pool Saturday at the George Mason University Aquatic and Fitness Center in Fairfax, still had to build the robots on their own without any help from the designers.
Their self-made robots had to navigate through obstacles in a pool, turn dials, knock objects off ledges and bring batons back from the water to their teenage controllers.
At the competition, the students even had to pair up with competitors from other schools who they had not necessarily even met prior to Saturday.
SeaPerch coordinator Gail Drake, a teacher at Battlefield, credited Battlefield’s showing to teacher Tim Post’s instruction, as well as to resilient students who bucked the stereotype about the kind of kids who take robotics classes.
“When they went into those rooms to talk to those judges, we had told the judges ahead of time, ‘You’re not talking to the cream of the crop. You’re talking to a course that’s been a dumping ground,’” Drake said.
She described the dumping ground as “[A] kid doesn’t do well, throw them in this course.”
In fact, a few students from other schools reinforced that idea.
“We had one student come in from one school and tell us, ‘My dad wrote the paper for me because he made me do it,’ said Drake. “And we had another student come in and say, ‘My teacher designed my t-shirt for me.’”
But this year’s crop of Bobcats, taught by Post, turned out differently.
“Well, you turn around, you take these kids, and make learning fun and all of a sudden, [their] interest is unbelievable,” Drake said. “Then you put them in a room with judges where these people say to them, ‘Look at what you achieved. You have built an underwater robot. Has anybody else in your school done this, other than your classes?’”
Drake added that the students would answer “no,” to which the judges remarked, “Do you realize what you’ve achieved?”
Those judges were not slouches, either. CEOs from engineering firms like Gibbs and Cox Inc. and Fulcrum Corp., as well as the project manager for all unmanned vehicles for the U.S. Navy were just some of those on hand to judge, referee the 16 water lanes, keep score and act as announcers over the public address system.
They picked Battlefield’s Team 5, which consisted of Dalton Briand, Andrew Castles, Matt Barrett and Michael Pulice, for first place in the Overall Team category.
Nick Nelson, Isaiah Richburg, Allesio Touma and Cuu Godfrey earned second place as Team 4 while Team 3 — Eric Saenz, Tristan Lora, Mike Pesce and Cody Tewell — wrapped up third-place honors for Battlefield.
Battlefield teams won six out of eight events. Cody Burke and Zavier Stringfellow guided Team 6 to victories in the Recovery Game, overall Robot Strategy and in the Collaboration Game with AJ Habib of Hylton; Team 3 earned the top spot in both Innovative Design and T-Shirt Design and Team 5 made the best Design Notebook.
The Bobcats also captured six second-place and four third-place finishes. In all, six out of nine Battlefield teams medaled at SeaPerch.
Brentsville District snatched a bit of glory, too, as the Tigers’ Team 4, led by Jacob Katuin, Dylan Mohammed and Andrew Erwin, turned in the judges’ top-rated Research Paper.
Meanwhile, Brentsville’s Erik Kelley combined with Hylton’s Reynaldo Cervantes to win second place in the Collaboration Game, and fellow Tiger Tatiana Zenalz teamed up with Constantine Ferrara of Forest Park to rope in third place in the same event.
A team from Stonewall Jackson also managed to crack the top three in Innovation Design, as Beckie Broussard and Olivia Humphreys scored a third-place win for the Raiders.
The only other teams outside western Prince William County, aside from Hylton, to place in events came from Woodbridge and Forest Park.
Business representatives in attendance unanimously agreed to support SeaPerch next year, according to Drake, as did several parents through e-mails to faculty members.
“[We] already have parents saying it’s the best thing their kids have ever done in education,” she said.
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