Kama‘ehu Rules! July 6, 2009

The 3rd and 4th graders of Ka Pa‘alana’s Kama‘ehu youth program participated in a robotics competition on July 2, 2009. Six of these children built a “sea perch” created by MIT that was donated to Kama‘ehu by Keolani Noa of Kapiolani Community College. The preliminary meet was held on July 1, at Palolo Pool, at this time there were a total of 13 entrants, 12 of which were from the S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) program put on by the University of Hawaii.

At the preliminary meet 13 of the boats went into the water and only 7 worked, we were so proud of our children as their boat was one of the 7. Some of the high schoolers struggled and it was nice to see our children go around to ask them for help. Then on July 2, our robotics team competed against several of the NHSEMP college students in several feats, parking the “sea perch” on a platform, an over/under obstacle course, landing/fitting directly in a box, and retrieving buoys while battling with other robots. A huge congratulations goes out to Andrew Sabanal, Keaulana Timbreza, Rosanna Bejang (3rd graders), Elizabeth Bejang, Brandon Wan-Dara (4th graders), and Shane Wan-Dara (5th grade), for dedicating approximately 20 hours to building this robot. Also a huge mahalo to Landon Sakai and Rickey Oshiro for teaching them how to assemble the “Sea Perch”.