TECHNOLOGY
STUDENTS’ ROBOT MAKES
NATIONAL COMPETITION
70
Trends In Education
Seated on the floor of “The Pit” behind South Fork High School, Daniel Dugger from Jensen Beach High School completes the wiring for the robot built by
the Martin County students from SPAM (Speed, Power And Maneuverability.)
Students from Martin County are aiming
for another first
STORY AND PHOTOS BY GREG GARDNER
In April, a team of high school students from Martin
County will defend its title in the St. Louis Rams football
stadium with a robot that can pick up and throw
a Frisbee 30 feet. The same team won last year’s For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
contest with a different robot by sinking 51 basketballs in two
minutes with an 89 percent shooting percentage.
The team is based at the Clark Learning Center at Indian
River State College, with some 60 members from Martin
County, South Fork and Jensen Beach high schools and home
schools. The team calls itself SPAM — an acronym for Speed,
Power and Maneuverability. After the new challenge is unveiled
simultaneously around the globe, the team will have
just six weeks to develop and build its robot with no more
than $5,000 in materials, including the 12-volt battery power
source. For the past 15 years, thousands of man-hours have
gone into each robot for the competition.
A nondescript building hidden behind South Fork High
School is the mad scientists’ laboratory, known as “The Pit.”
Every Saturday and every weeknight for six weeks the small
building is crammed with students and mentors creating the
interconnecting pieces of the robot puzzle. Together, using
their computer, electrical and mechanical skills, SPAM team
members bring the robot to life.
Buzzing around the incredibly cluttered but somehow
organized building are the students, almost all of whom go
on to college. SPAM team members have moved on to work
as engineers at NASA, Rolls Royce and Google. Mentors >>