Florence students participate in the Roebling School, Marcella L. Duffy School and Florence Middle School student robot competition.
By: Scott Morgan
FLORENCE The mayor of Robot Town (a.k.a. Janice Ordog, director of Florence Township School District’s Enrichment Program), pinged through rows of silent automatons like a pinball on a quest to set the Guinness record for points on a single quarter.
Looming over her shoulders were the answers to some of mankind’s deepest and most basic concerns who can I get to make me a milkshake right now? If only I could go back and do it over again … and she raced to get their creators to cast their votes before time ran out. The ‘bots were visions of the future, yes, but not immune to the passing time. One of them had to finish first and whichever it was needed to do it now.
Some were gleaming, some had Groucho noses, some had fuzzy ears and some had smiley faces on the top, but all were up for grabs as entries in the Roebling School, Marcella L. Duffy School and Florence Middle School student robot contest. Some had slogans, like the "obviously-built-on-simplicity" Car Control-bot that promised to "revive the way you drive" by letting you fall asleep at the wheel and piloting your car while you catch a few ZZZs.
Others, like Holly the Holiday Helper, who wraps your gifts and keep things moving in the Christmas season, elicited requests for 800 numbers so people could order Holly for themselves. The two-day competition drew a huge number of entries from the minds and hands of kids from grades three through eight.
For Ms. Ordog, who has overseen the contest for each of its 16 years, the imaginations always yield big surprises.
"Every year, I think they’re going to outdo themselves, and they do," she said of the kids as she continued to ping through rows of middle school entries. "It’s so cool."
Cool, most definitely. After all, what else could you call a contest featuring the "Beauty-bot," which helps girls with their makeup in a pinch? Or "Scaredy Cat," the mobile nightlight designed to guide the dark-wary through the hallway?
Between Thursday’s contest (Feb. 5), which featured ‘bots designed and built of cardboard and foil and old buckets and probably even the kitchen sink by middle schoolers, and Friday’s, which featured fantastic, bizarre and downright practical entries from Roebling and Duffy elementary school students, this year’s contest drew well over 50 robots to tickle the imagination.
Winners were chosen for each, in three categories. In the middle school, eighth-grader Samantha Berry grabbed the prize for most original robot with her "Answer-O-Matic," which answers all questions all the time (and it actually did, it was part computer, part smiley face). Seventh-grader Ellyn Marant took the most artistic prize for "Sleepy Wish Bear," a giant blue-green Care Bear who shuts out your lights so you can get to sleep. Sixth-grader Lorraine Perri had the most functional robot with "Junglebot," a rope-shimmying miniorangutan that works on voice activation.
From Roebling, Mara DiFillippo’s "Elbot," the automatic Elvis, took the most original prize. Heather Horner’s "Gabby the Garden Basketbot" garden helper grabbed most artistic and Alexis Smith’s "The Ghoul," took the most functional prize.
All were third-graders.
From Duffy, Dakota Benish picked up the most original prize for "ALFA: the Automatic Launch Facility." Stephen Black’s "Safeguard" security robot scored for most artistic and Shannon Sweeney’s "Mucav" (that’s ‘vacuum" spelled backward … kinda) won for being the most functional. All these winners were fourth-graders.