Newton's Team Aperture achieves varsity status

NEWTON — Team Aperture recently held a dinner to celebrate their newly acquired varsity status and honor team members who earned their varsity letter. To be eligible for a varsity letter in robotics, students must actively participate during the build season - often more than 150 hours per year - and work on community outreach and service programs. A leadership role on the team and attendance at a championship event are also required. Several special guests attended the dinner including Col. Edward Peterson, Col. Hau Do and Col. Sharam Dabiri, all of the United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal. Donald Bowers, Regional Director of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), an organization supporting science and technology education in schools, also attended. “Remember, the FIRST competition is not about building a robot, it's mainly about building a team. Once the students come together, collaborate and communicate, they learn the many facets of 21st century skills and use them to create a machine and a team that solves the given challenge within a six week time constraint,” said James Hofmann, a technology teacher at Halsted Middle School in Newton and coach of the Newton High School FIRST Varsity Robotics team. This is the third year Team Aperture will compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition. The team has just about completed the build for this year’s game, Rebound Rumble, and will test their robot in competitions on March 10-11 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and March 31 and April 1 at Mount Olive High School in Flanders. The team won the FIRST 2010 Rookie All Star Award at the New York City Regional competition and earned a trip to the international championship in Atlanta, GA. Inaugural Team Roster Newton High School’s FIRST Robotics Team has achieved varsity status and recently conferred letters on its inaugural group of varsity students. Lincoln Noggle Kaitlyn Kolzow Christopher Marion Christopher Reda Kyle Wall Ryan Wolfrum Richard Gerdes Nicholas Aquilino Joseph Makowitz Max Bareiss Tyler Morris Todd Schabacker Layne Darabaris Brian Flaherty Shane Best Magdalena Dworzycki Theresa Bugay