Three Green Mountain-Garwin students, and their built-from-scratch robot, were the focus of this month’s school board meeting at the GMG Elementary School library Monday night. Middle school students Austin Strayer and brothers Jacob and Justin Abernathy were eager to showcase their creation: a silver, four-wheeled robot with a grabbing arm, flashing lights and many, many wires. “The worst part about building the robot was the wiring,” said GMG Robotics Team coach Mike Sparlin, who guided the students through the engineering and competition processes. Strayer and Jacob constantly fiddled with he controls, which were two converted Xbox controllers. “This is all the students’ design,” Sparlin said as he watched the robot zip around, picking up yellow blocks and arranging them. “All I did was work with some of the wiring and electronic parts.” Justin’s work was integral to the internal workings of the robot. “My favorite part is the gears,” he said. “I put a lot of the gears together.” Jacob and Strayer were more interested in the control mechanics, Sparlin and Justin said. Along with the showcase of the robot, three elementary and middle school teachers presented STEM projects they did with their classes. The students really worked together,” said fourth grade teacher Jeannie Tonner. “They made a plan and stuck to it.” Tonner’s class was given a fictional oil spill and the problems that come with such a situation. She said they cooperated and came up with great solutions to the problem. In fifth grade, teacher Shelli Taylor had two different issue for her students: biomedical engineering for running shoes and building and bracing an engineered knee joint. “We measured every student’s foot arch and organized the data so it would be acceptable to send to a shoe company,” Taylor said. In sixth grade, the rubber hit the road as students tested their remote control race car skills. “I wanted the students to learn how much work goes into racing,” said sixth grade teacher Jay Beichley. With the racing activity, students learned how to use data from an experiment, find an average speed and test that speed against individual performances. “I think it’s great the kids got to learn about these things,” Beichley said. Sparlin and Justin also talked about their experience at the First Tech Challenge regional meet, the school’s first robotics competition. “Our robot was really the little engine that could,” Sparlin said. “We managed to beat one team, pretty good for not knowing a lot of what we were doing.” Justin said he liked seeing all the different robots and the ideas behind them. “I liked seeing how the competition worked, to see what other peoples’ ideas were, what their plan was,” he said. “It was a really cool experience.”