Watkins – When a team of boys, whose pasts include arrests for drug-dealing and robbery, entered a regional robotics competition last month, they walked away with something even they didn’t expect.
The winning trophy.
“It’s a classic story,” said teacher Russell Burchill, an applied-technology teacher at Ridge View Academy, a juvenile detention center. “They didn’t really think they could do it, and they’re saying, ‘Wow, we just beat everybody.”‘
This week, with special permission from Colorado’s Division of Youth Corrections, the nine-member team will fly to Atlanta to compete in the international FIRST Robotics Competition at the Georgia Dome.
The event will feature more than 350 teams, including some from high schools in Brazil and Israel. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.
The Rambotics team, named for Ridge View Academy’s mascot, won the regional competition as part of a three-team alliance that also included Arvada High School in Jefferson County and Montclair High School in New Jersey.
“This is easily one of the most important things I’ve done in my life,” said Johnathan, who went from a past of coordinating drug deals to coordinating strategy as the Rambotics’ team leader. The Denver Post is not publishing the students’ full names because they are juveniles charged with crimes.
“I’ve had a lot of teachers tell me … I’m not going to amount to anything,” said Johnathan, who now dreams of becoming an engineer. “I’ve never achieved anything like this.”
Ridge View Academy, a 500-bed residential facility chartered by Denver Public Schools, serves adjudicated males in grades 9-12.
Students in the rigidly structure school do rigorous exercise and carry a full course load.
In the robotics competition, the students, working with mentors, are charged with designing and building robots that compete in a boxing-ring-style setting. The object is to get as many inflated tubes as possible onto the arms of a large structure. The Rambotics team designed a robot that would work aggressively on defense, blocking their opponent’s robot from getting access to the structure.
Dawn Lutz, chair of Colorado’s regional planning committee, said Ridge View’s participation is “pretty unusual” because most teams are made up of traditional high school kids.
But she expects Rambotics to be strong contenders. “Their robot is very solid,” she said.
Sam, a Rambotics team member, is amused by the irony.
“We’re a bunch of adjudicated juveniles” competing with kids “that were probably in their basements half their lives” doing science projects, he said.
“You never hear about the best of the bottom of the barrel” winning a competition, he said.
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-954-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
