Habele Robotics League adds 23rd Micronesian High School

Madolenihmw High School has joined the Pohnpei Robo League, making it the 23rd high school in Micronesia to offer students the chance to design, build, and compete robots on their own, and in partnership with other high school teams.

Located in Pohnlangas, Madolenihmw High School (MHS) serves students in the central east of Pophnei island, to the east of Mount Nahna Laud and south of Mount Kapwuriso. NHS is also the high school closest to the ruins of Nan Madol, a series of megalithic monuments on nearly 100 artificial islets on a coral reef offshore.

Micronesia's Habele Robo League expands into Kosrae

 

High school students on the tiny Micronesian island of Kosrae will be building, programming and competing their own advanced robots for the first time. Located at the remote eastern end of the Federated States of Micronesia, this island of less than seven thousand inhabitants is renowned for its pristine waters and lush mountain landscape.

In partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs, Habele is providing equipment, training and support for the formation of Kosrae’s first-ever “Kosrae Robo League.” The Habele Robotics League has collaborated with public and private schools across the FSM since 2012, beginning in Yap, and expanding to Chuuk and Pohnpei States in 2018. Now, high school students on Kosrae will join their peers across the FSM in mastering science and technology concepts in an innovative, hands-on way.

"Robo Day" Big Win for Students in Micronesia

Robo Day 2019 is in the record books for students in Yap, Chuuk and Pohnpei States. After a year of training, planning, and strategizing, students from participating high schools in each of these states met to exhibit their skills in the spirit of friendly competition. For Chuuk and Pohnpei, Robo Day 2019 represented their first year of participation in the Habele Robo League. While Yap State has blazed a trail with robotics for over five years now, their Robo Day competition also saw new faces. Neighboring Islands Central High School (NICHS) from remote Woleai Atoll, and Yap International Christian School both fielded teams for the first time.

Robotics League Grows Across Micronesia

Fourteen new high schools across Yap, Chuuk and Pohnpei States have been equipped and trained to participate in the Western Pacific’s only high school robotics league. Throughout December of 2018, Habele Outer Island Education Fund provided technical instruction to staff and students from public and private high schools across these three states. The training workshops began in Pohnpei, and culminated in instructional sessions on the remote Woleai Atoll in Yap State. Woleai’s Neighboring Islands Central High School represents the most isolated partner school to join the robotics league, and rounds out the list of every high school across Yap State who will field a team for the 2019 Yap Robo Day.

“Most of the students we’re training have no experience with robotics,” says Amelia Weiss, Habele’s Director of STEM. “Even without background training, these young people catch on fast, and are going to do great things."

Team members design and build their own complex robots, learning important Science, Technology, Engineering and Math skills in a hands-on way. Over the course of the coming semester, clubs will prepare to exhibit their newfound skills in “Robo Day” events, which provide an outlet for friendly competition and community interaction. Independent Robo Day competitions will be held for participants in Pohnpei, Chuuk and Yap States.

""Each participating Pohnpei High Schools has formed their respective Robotics Clubs in their schools, and are all excited with the new program, says Russell Figueras, Vice Principal of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School. "Building their own robots was fun and easy way of understanding programming."


Formerly a program for high schools in Yap State, the Habele Robotics League expanded to include partners in Chuuk and Pohnpei with the help of a  2018 grant from the Office of Insular Affairs.

Island Students Striving Toward Robotics Competition

Scale, isolation, and limited natural resources are major barriers to economic development in the many tiny islands of Micronesia.

The islands of this remote and strategically situated nation span a length nearly the distance from Los Angeles to New York across the remote Western Pacific

These challenges aren’t stopping hard ambitious students of the Yap Robo League. Students from five of Yap State’s high schools have been working to design, build, and operate complex robots constructed from simple parts, and will showcase their achievement in a public competition and science fair this May.

World-class training for Robotics Students in Yap

(Colonia, Yap) Island students have been receiving high tech training in the design and construction of robots as the five high schools of the Yap Robo League work towards their goal of a statewide robotics competition next spring.

Habele’s Director of STEM Programs, Amelia Weiss, first met with participating school leaders on Yap in early December. A series of workshops, site visits, and peer-to-peer trainings followed. Administrators, teachers, and select students from Yap High School, Outer Islands High School, Yap Catholic High School, Yap SDA School, and Faith Christian Academy participated throughout.