Robo Day in Yap showcases STEM Achievement in Micronesia

The dust has settled on Yap’s 9th annual Robo Day competition, an exhibition of technical skill and achievement by robotics clubs from across the remote islands of Yap State. Provisioned and supported by Habele, clubs from participating high schools enjoy hands-on robotics learning throughout the year, before gathering to show off their skills to the community in this friendly challenge.

The 2021 Yap Robo Day championship went to the team from the remote Outer Islands High School (OIHS), located on the tiny Ulithi Atoll about one hundred miles east of Yap. Despite being one of the more remote high schools on the planet, the robotics club continues to thrive in the Habele Robo League. This year’s victory represents the second championship win for OIHS in the last three years.

Second place went to the Yap High School robo club, the only public high school on the main island of Yap. Third place was awarded to Yap Catholic High School, the very first school in the Robo League.

Robotics offers Micronesian students a strong grounding in problem solving. It sparks learning by letting them experiment with ideas in real world situations, while cultivating local ownership of the state Robo Leagues.

Yap Robo Day would not happen without the time and effort of school administrators, teachers, the State Department of Education, and engaged community members. We congratulate all the competitors on a job well done, and look forward to another year of exciting learning and growth. 

We are tremendously proud of the hard-working students and educators of the Robo League all across Micronesia,” explained Habele founder, Neil Mellen. “This practical and empowering effort is just one way we can deepen the strong, stable, and sustainable partnership between the American and Micronesian Peoples.”

Micronesian Looms: Weaving Connections in the US (2)

This is the second in a series of posts dealing with Weaving Connections, a project of Habele to sustain and preserve Micronesian backstrap weaving traditions among Island populations who’ve migrated to the United States mainland. More here

Cataloging of Materials and Equipment

Habele and our technical leads began by listing all the items needed to weave as well as each item’s sub-components. After examining historic and contemporary English naming conventions used for loom weaving, we selected preferred and secondary English translations for each item and developed a taxonomy for all the equipment and materials. We also settled on preferred spelling for each item in the three distinct Austronesian languages of Ulithian, Woleaian, and Satawalese.

Item by item, we matched photographs and sketches we had gathered, and further solicited and sought additional photos and specimens. We began the process of identifying which variations were most common, and which parts and components would be most difficult to obtain (or fabricate) among our intended target audience of FSM migrants in the mainland United States.

Finally, we considered and systematized the place-based differences between Ulithian, Woleaian and Satawalese weaving, most notably in the configuration of the warping board pegs, and considered what, if any, design patterns and decisions could account for these variations in a simple and standardized way.

This is the second in a series of posts dealing with Weaving Connections, a project of Habele to sustain and preserve Micronesian backstrap weaving traditions among Island populations who’ve migrated to the United States mainland. More here