Summer Break an Opportunity for STEM Development in Chuuk

A team of students and educators from Pohnpei broke from summer relaxation to share their enthusiasm for high school robotics with peers in Chuuk.

Three students and two educators from Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School (OLMCHS) travelled to Chuuk to lead a four-day robotics workshop. Over the course of the training, students from public and private high schools across Chuuk partnered with the Pohnpei team to build, operate and compete their very own robots. For Weipat High School, located in Chuuk’s Northwest Islands, this represented the school’s first hands-on interaction with the new technology.

The building workshop was sponsored by Habele, a US non-profit that designed and implemented a robotics league extending across all four states of the FSM. OLMCHS was one of the first schools in Pohnpei to join in the Robo League in 2018, and has hosted annual Robo Day competitions, in which participating high schools gather to compete for the title of Pohnpei Robo Day Champions. Chuuk Department of Education generously made the Chuuk High School gymnasium available for the week, as well as providing food and encouragement for all the participants.

Teams of all experience levels at the training began with an unassembled robotics kit, and with the help of the team from Pohnpei, worked through each of the parts and their functions. Surrounded by piles of metal and electronic components, each school team tweaked and troubleshot their way to a functioning robot. While beginning students have clear instructions to follow, experimenting and exploring with the equipment is encouraged.

“Creative problem solving is key here,” said Matt Coleman, Habele’s Director of Operations. “Students learn to analyze a challenge, and use the parts they have on hand to resolve it. It is an important skill to develop for any vocation.”

After completing their first robotics build, teams worked on controlling the robots through a variety of simple tasks. As the workshop progressed, challenges became more complex. The culmination of the training was a series of competitive events to test robotics dexterity and function for points. Prior to the final competition, students were encouraged by Dr. Margarita Cholymay, Director of Chuuk Department of Education, who praised them for learning new skills, and urged them to take advantage of the educational opportunities provided. The team from Saruman Chuuk Academy won first place in the competition, with Xavier High School coming in second, and Weipat High School taking third. All teams demonstrated tremendous growth over the course of the training. Students will return to their schools with a working robot, and enthusiasm to share what they learned with their peers.

“Peer to peer training encourages active participation and engagement among learners,” said Russell Figueras, Principal of OLMCHS, and one of the trainers for the workshop. “When students are involved in teaching their peers, they become more invested in the learning process and more likely to grasp and retain the information. This was an awesome learning experience for our students.”

The training workshop is the last Habele-sponsored robotics event in Chuuk. The US nonprofit is sunsetting its involvement in high school robotics across the FSM after over a decade, but hopes robotics education evolves further through support from FSM national and state governments.

Habele will continue to offer tuition scholarships to students attending private elementary and high schools in the FSM, donations to schools and libraries, direct monthly book deliveries to children under the age of five (“Young Island Readers”), and donations of tools to traditional carvers and weavers.

Hands On STEM Brings Micronesian Students Together

This May, students from public and private schools across Pohnpei gathered at the Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School gymnasium for the 5th Annual Pohnpei Robo Day. This yearly exhibition of applied Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) allows students to demonstrate their creative problem-solving skills in friendly competition with peers.

Five teams went head-to-head with the robots constructed by each robotics club, maneuvering the machines through a series of timed challenges for points, with the final match determining the Robo Day Champion and runner up.

Pohnpei Island Central School’s team (PICS) entered the 2023 competition with the momentum of having recently competed internationally at the FIRST Global International Robotics Challenge in Switzerland. In 2022, the PICS team represented the entire FSM at the challenge, placing highly among the other small nations competing. This year, however, home field advantage carried the day, and Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School kept the Champion’s trophy.

The team placements were:

First – Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School
Second – Pohnpei Island Central School
Third – Pohnpei Catholic School
Fourth – Nanpei Memorial High School
Fifth – Calvary Christian Academy

A new challenge is already in the works for next year’s Robo Day, requiring all robotics clubs to start from scratch in designing a robot to compete.

The Robo League is uniquely student-driven, allowing students to explore and experiment with complex technologies and concepts in a hands on way. Robo Day challenges give all participants the opportunity to apply knowledge and skills to tough problems, and come up with creative and effective solutions. Even students who might not see themselves as “math and science types” can be drawn in to engage a lifelong love of STEM.

“The young people at Robo Day will grow up to help lead the FSM,” says Matt Coleman, Habele’s Director of Operations. “The Robo League is helping them develop the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in a world driven by STEM innovation.”

The Robo League was introduced to Pohnpei in 2018 by Habele, a US nonprofit founded by former Peace Corps volunteers who taught in Micronesia. Habele first introduced robotics to Micronesia in 2011, and has trained and supported participating high schools across all four FSM states through a technical assistance partnership with the Office of Insular Affairs.

Despite COVID-19, Robo Day 2020 Rolls Forward

Early May finds Micronesia, a nation of many small and scattered islands in the Western Pacific, one of the few countries with no confirmed cases of COVID-19.

An array of prevention measures, including quarantines and social distancing, have been implemented by national and state governments in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) to prevent introduction or spread of the virus.

One impact of social distancing was delay of “Robo Day,” the annual statewide high school robotics championships held at the end of the school year in Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae States.

Student teams at twenty-two schools had spent the year designing, building, and fine-tuning robots in preparation for these public competitions, which showcase students’ achievement in math and science. Established in 2012, Habele’s Robo League is the most remote high school robotics program in the world and made possible through a partnership with the US Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs.

While the specifics in each Micronesian state -and often each school- are different, holding four large public gatherings with scores of students and hundreds of onlookers won’t work for Robo Day 2020.

In partnership with school leaders and students, Habele has adjusted the planned Robo Day game course, creating a simpler, smaller, series of tasks that even a single student with a robot can complete for time.

Students can build a game board on any flat surface of about five square feet, such as a floor or a road. The modified game consists of three tasks, each of which are completed within that box. Another student, friend or family member can film the robot as it completes the tasks for time. The videos will be uploaded ahead of a deadline, allowing for students throughout the FSM to compete with their peers in their state and across Micronesia.

“Habele’s Robo League is about hands on learning and real-world problem solving,” explained Neil Mellen, the former Peace Corps Volunteer who established Habele in 2006. “This revision of Robo Day 2020 to allow for social distancing is a great example of problem solving –not to mention a glimpse of how transformative distance learning can be for Micronesian students.”

Details of the social distancing Robo Day game board and the three challenges are online at habele.org/RoboDay2020 as well as the facebook.com/HabeleFund. Students have until midnight local time on Thursday, May 21st to post their final videos, one task at a time. They may post as many videos on Facebook as they like until the deadline. Students must tag the videos with “#HabeleRobo” and note in their post their name, their school, their state, which task they are completing, and how long it took.

Prizes –which arrived on-island before the pandemic- will be awarded in each of the four states for the students with the fastest time for each of three individual tasks, as well for the school with the fastest combined time for the three tasks in each state.

While COVID prevention specifics in each Micronesian state vary and may evolve, the redesigned game offers students who have worked all year in preparation for Robo Day the chance to test and showcase their skills. Local conditions will dictate the specifics of how schools utilize the revised game, but the online, student-driven format offers even those under the strictest distancing guidelines the chance to safely be a part of Robo Day 2020.