Alamogordo STEM teams will compete in World Championship in Houston
A local program has allowed a group of high school and middle school students from the Alamogordo School District to make a name for themselves in the science, technology, engineering and math (S.T.E.M.) field at home and nationwide.
The A.S.T.R.O. program at the Alamogordo School District serves nearly 100 students throughout the Otero County and was started this year by Alamogordo teachers Sarah Cerra, Heather Kangas and Matthew Kangas.
"While previous years, we have individually mentored robotics teams, we have come together this year to really grow the program and reach students in STEM," Cerra said. "Our program served 59 kids, preschool to 12th grade, in Alamogordo and another 30-ish students in Tularosa."
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There are three teams that are traveling to world competitions this year, according to Cerra.
The "Short Circuits" won fourth place at the State First LEGO League Challenge Championship and will represent New Mexico in May at the Western Edge Invitational in California. The "SupercalifragilisticA.S.T.R.O.alidocious" won the first place at the State First LEGO League Challenge Championship and will represent New Mexico in April at the World Championship in Houston. The "A.S.T.R.O. Vikings" won the Inspire Award (first place) at the First Tech Challenge State Championship and will also travel to the World Championship in April.
Cerra said although the students are preparing to travel to these competitions, they still make time to help the community where they can.
The A.S.T.R.O. Vikings contribute to the community
"Our high school students have over 1,200 volunteer hours outside of their regular team meetings. They have coached teams, they have run STEM events, and hosted local competitions. Our middle schoolers have worked in the community gardens and taught preschoolers about gardening," Cerra said.
One student that taught middle schoolers and elementary students about gardening was Jody Cerra, an eighth grade student from Chaparral Middle School. Cerra said he loves to contribute to events outside of the STEM program, so he stays involved with the school.
"I've been doing robotics since second grade, so it's always been a part of my life. My mom loved it, and my brother was on the team last year as well," Cerra said. "I like to teach other students about the core values about the STEM program. My biggest core value is the GP, Gracious Professionalism, just being very nice to people, helping out."
Cerra is not the only STEM student who takes pride in community service. Mark Allen, senior at Alamogordo High School said they teach the students everything they need to know in order to win World the following year once he and other seniors are graduated.
"I've taught the program and coding on Java for middle schools' students in order to prototype something. Java gets you down to the hardware. Just recently we did a badge day for the girl scouts. They came in and our goal was to try and help them get their coding badges," Allen said.
"For the code team, the girls went over there and learned about Java, python and all that stuff to drive the robot and get the experience a little bit. We also had three teams where we mentored other teams, generally rookies. So, we were able to teach them a little bit about Java based programming."
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'Gearing' up for Worlds Championship
As the students help the next generation of STEM members, they also have their work cut out for them as they simultaneously prepare for World Championships.
A.S.T.R.O Vikings and SupercalifragilisticA.S.T.R.O.alidocious teams will be traveling to Houston where they plan to showcase their robots.
"We are a bit nervous that we may not have one of them (the robots) ready in time, but we have a backup plan," Allen said.
The team said the goal is to score enough points in order to move on and place. The robot that scores the most points wins and moves on. There are scores for other presentations during the competition, for instance, other team members must put together what the group calls, a portfolio, that breaks down each team member, what they have done during the semester, what the team has contributed to the community and what they have worked on that year.
"We hope we can win, that's always the goal but we also love to have fun," he said. "Some of us are graduating while others are just learning. I have been only once so I'm excited to always meet new people and learn new things."
Juan Corral can be reached at JCorral@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter at @Juan36Corr.
This article originally appeared on Alamogordo Daily News: Alamogordo students travel with STEM teams to Houston for competition
