St. Thomas the Apostle School Robotics Roll in Tournament

The St Thomas robotics team had a great showing at the Clifton High school First Lego League qualifying event on Saturday, November 19, 2016 sponsored by the Montclair Society of Engineers. the Tech Dragons had the 4th highest score out of 44 teams in the Robot Missions. The Mega Masters received a Project Inspiration award for their research and design and was one of only nine teams at the event to advance to the First Lego League State Championship. Congratulations to all of the teams. They did a wonderful job representing St Thomas!

Team Mega Masters took this as a challenge to research the occurring problem on the high seas of oil spills. They quickly utilized one of the newest resources at St. Thomas the Apostle School their new 3-Dimensional Printer to design a model of a boat. Fifth graders Camille Schiralli and Diana Prisco along with fourth graders Garan Salandy, Devin Andress, Kenneth McGowan, Regina Salandra, and Carter Courtney hope that with the knowledge they have acquired from this project to one day solve the issues of oil spills in the world. Did you know that a pound of hair can soak up a mass amount of oil in seconds? Did you know that it will take a mushroom or fungi days to soak up the same amount? These are just some of the facts the students found while researching issues for their assignment. This project will be presented in the coming months at their annual Lego League tournament which places the students of St. Thomas the Apostle School in Bloomfield against some of New Jersey's brightest and tech savvy students throughout the state.

STA alum, Tristan Courtney ( class of 2016) was recognized by the Montclair Society of Engineers an outstanding young mentor.