February 6, 2018
Congratulations to the 36 US students who competed in the Science Olympiad Raleigh Regional. Our JV team medaled in eight events and the Varsity team earned 5th place and medaled in 12 events
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February 2, 2018
Cary Academy took 3rd place in the prestigious United States Invitational Young Physicists Tournament (USIYPT) in January 2018. Teams of students from schools around the world had been working on complex problems for a full calendar year and joined together to share and defend their research.
This year, teams of students worked on Moon’s Orbit (Robert Schellenberger and Vincent Wang with help from Rachel May and Abe Weinstein), Electromagnetically Coupled Mechanical Oscillators (Cameron Fisher and Abe Weinstein with help from Obinna Modilim), Projectile Motion Through the Air (Josh Pullen, Ross Matton and Ben Humphries with help from Scott Matton, Will Aarons, Felipe Chiavegatto, Aidan Sher, and Saajan Patal) and Incandescent Light Bulbs and Blackbody Radiation (Maggie Hayes with help from Christian Sodano and Paul Ibrahim).
The competition on these undergraduate-level physics questions involves both presentation and defense of CA team research but also understanding and discussing the research presented by other schools. Maggie Hayes (team captain), Robert Schellenerger, Josh Pullen and Abe Weinstein ably presented and defended their work at the competition, but it is truly an effort of the whole group, as no single person could possibly complete a project of this magnitude alone.
USAYPT’s goal is to improve teaching and learning by promoting research at the high school level. This was the third year that Cary Academy has been invited to participate. The team was started by US physics teacher Matt Greenwolfe, with support from faculty members Dick Mentock, Robert Coven, and Rachel Atay.
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January 30, 2018
Cary Academy has two JV robotics teams that compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge. On Saturday, January 27th, they went to their second qualifying tournament, their last chance to move on to the States. Both teams (and robots) met the challenge with flying colors.
At the end of round-robin play where each team competes in 5 matches, both Team Q – 5270 and the ChargerBots – 12010 finished with records of 4-1. Scoring rules sort out ties leaving 5270 seeded #3 and 12010 seeded #4. The #1 seeded team was Aperture Science, driving a virtually unbeatable bot; and Deus Ex Machina rounded out the top for as the #2 seed.
During alliance selection, where the top 4 seeds choose two other robots to join their alliance, the #1 team chose 12010 to join them and the #2 seed chose the 5270 to join them. Both CA teams jumped to a higher-seeded alliance, opening the door for our teams to go head-to-head in the finals.
Playoff rounds use a best two out of three format, and both alliances won their semi-final rounds in two matches, sending both CA teams to the finals, on opposing alliances. Seeding held true to form as the #1 alliance claimed the victory in two matches.
Thus, CA’s Chargerbots (12010) arrived home with a champion trophy. They also earned the Connect Award, recognizing their work to reach out to the community and share robot love.
Not to be outdone, Team Q (5270) came home with not only the runner-up trophy, but also with the Control Award, which recognizes excellent programming systems.
It was an awesome day for CA robotics and the teams now have 2 weeks to get ready for the State Championship on Feb 10th in Greensboro.
Join us in congratulating the members of CA’s JV Robotics teams:
5270 – Team Q
1. John Kesler (10)
2. Matthew Modi (10)
3. Sheridan Page (10)
4. Myla James (9)
5. Zariah Greene (10)
6. Casey Cervenka (9)
7. Quinn Vaughan (9)
8. Ryan Chen (9)
9. Jono Jenkens (10)
10. Evan Snively (10)
11. Loren Troan (10)
12. Han Zhang (9)
13. Brandon Yi (9)
14. Morgan White (10)
12010 – ChargerBots
1. Scott Matton (10)
2. Felipe Chiavegatto (10)
3. Ethan Norfleet (10)
4. Colin Zhu (10)
5. Harrison Truscott (9)
6. Aidan Sher (10)
7. Sachin Amaresh (10)
8. Sarah Hallman (9)
9. Olivia Zimmerman (9)
10. Anisha Rustogi (9)
11. Zach Wiebe (9)
12. Anna Cheng (10)
13. Obinna Modilim (10)
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April 7, 2017
At the National Council of History Educators, held March 29-April 1 in Atlanta, the CA STEP Club presented a workshop titled Democratizing History: Conceptual Modeling as a Means to Deep, Permanent and Transferable Understanding.
The students attending were: Aditya Surana, Maddie Mizelle, Jack Werner, Anjali Velu (whose dad came along as a chaperon), Krishan Guzzo and Justin Chen.
History teacher Robert Coven serves as club advisor.
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March 6, 2017
The varsity robotics team made it to the finals as part of an alliance at a FIRST NC district event in Winterville over the past weekend. The team finished in second. This is the first time that a CA FRC team has reached the final in a tournament.
CA began the quarterfinals captaining the #6 seed and had to play against the #3 seed. The alliance partners chosen were Cortechs and Green Hope. All playoff matches are best 2 out of 3 games. The alliance won and moved on to the semis against the #7 seed, whom they beat to move into the finals.
Despite losing the finals, CA won two awards: the Judges Award and Hard Hat Award (a type of safety award). CA also got silver medals for everyone in its alliance. Best of all, CA’s performance in this tournament ranks them 3rd in the state.
CA’s next tournament is March 24-25 at SE Raleigh Magnet High School, 2600 Rock Quarry Road, Raleigh. Matches run from about 10am-6pm each day.
Team members at this latest event:
Members unable to attend:
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January 30, 2017
This past weekend the JV robotics teams completed their regular season competitions. The team competes in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is the international organization that runs robotics competitions.
CA’s teams Q (gold) and ChargerBots (blue) competed at the Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill. Team Q ended the qualifying rounds with a record of 1-4, and was not selected by one of the top four alliances to participate in the playoff rounds. The ChargerBots raced to a record of 4-1. This performance meant the team ended the qualifying round as the third-seeded team, and the right to captain an alliance going into the playoffs. Their alliance fought hard against the second-seeded alliance, both winning a match to force the round into a tie-breaking third match, which they lost.
During the awards ceremony, Team Q was named as finalists for the Connect Award, in addition to the Control Award (mastering robot intelligence), and the Motivate Award (sparking others to embrace the culture of FIRST). The ChargerBots were named as second runner-up for the Inspire Award, the highest achievement awarded at FTC tournaments, which recognizes teams that fully embody the challenge of the program. The ChargerBots earned a spot in the state tournament to be held at North Carolina A&T on Feb. 18.
Two weeks ago, CA’s teams Q ChargerBots participated in the Cardinal Gibbons Qualifying tournament, where both teams struggled throughout the day with technical problems. The day ended with the ChargerBots unable to earn a spot in the playoff rounds, while Team Q was selected to join an alliance and play in the semi-finals. They were knocked out in that round by the eventual winners of the tournament. Team Q was named as the runner-up for the Connect Award, which recognizes a team’s outreach in sharing STEM in the community.
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