Brentwood High School STEM club excel in robotics competition

Spring marks the inaugural competition season for the Long Island Robotics Workforce Club, a STEM-based program offered through a partnership between PSEG Long Island, Brentwood Union Free School District and United Way of Long Island.

Students in the program learn to analyze and solve problems through the engineering design process, helping them to develop technology literacy skills.

“Our students’ engineering accomplishments wouldn’t be possible without PSEG Long Island’s vision, incredible generosity, and support,” said Dr. Vincent Leone, coordinator of funded programs, compliance and chief information officer, Brentwood Union Free School District. “The partnership with PSEG Long Island and United Way helps to materialize core Brentwood values, including cultivating students’ strengths, preferences, and interests; and, ensuring that each child leaves school equipped for college, career, and civic readiness.”

As part of the program, two teams of Brentwood High School students were tasked with designing and building robots to participate in a competition. Both teams made it to the semi-final round of the competition, and were only one round shy of qualifying for the state tournament.

The students in the club became a resource for all things robotics in the district, and have even developed a hands-on lesson for elementary school teachers in the district to learn how to teach the topic to their students.

The students have also introduced weekly robotics lessons to students with special needs in the Life Skills program and after-school Friendship Club.To learn more about United Way of Long Island’s impact, visit: www.unitedwayli.org.