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NEWS
Automation Stimulation
Superintendent Bregy plans to Robot-building leave D-112 classes build BY STEVE SADIN important DAILYNORTHSHORE.COM orth Shore School District 112 skills, but kids Superintendent Michael Bregy plans to leave his posi- see it as fun tion before February to become the
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new head of the Beverly Hills Unified School District in California. Bregy said in an email to the District 112 community, sent at 10:15 p.m. December 10, that he is leaving for a position in Southern California. He did not return calls from DailyNorthShore.com seeking comment. Mel Spitz, president of the Board of Education for the Beverly Hills district, confirmed in a telephone interview with DNS.com Bregy has been offered a contract, which Spitz anticipates will be approved by the board when it meets February 12. “I do indeed,” said Spitz when asked if he expected his board to approve the contract. “He has some issues to work out with his current board, but we anticipate he will start here February 1.” North Shore School District 112 Board of Education President Michael Cohn said he was stunned when he learned the news December Continued on PG 12
BY STEVE SADIN DAILYNORTHSHORE.COM
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t some North Shore schools robotics is a required class, but for students the subject is more fun than work. Robotics is also competitive, offering students a chance to win a state championship. A total of 16 teams from the North Shore and beyond competed in the First Lego League regional robotics competition December 3 at Lake Forest Country Day School in Lake Forest, with four advancing to the state tournament January 14 in Elgin. North Shore teams came from Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Wilmette and Highland Park. The Empowering Elephants from Lake Forest Country Day School was the only North Shore squad to make it to state. At LFCDS, designing a robot from Lego building blocks and competing in the league is part of the required Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum. Head of School Bob Whelan said it is critical to the youngsters’ future. “We are training them for jobs that don’t exist yet in industries that don’t exist yet,” said Whelan. “We are training them for transformative competencies where they learn to collaborate to-
Team “Diving Dolphins” members Will Meyer of Lake Bluff (left) and Ricky Ascroft of Lake Forest with Hanna Cobin of Lake Bluff and Maggie Andrea of Highland Park at the First Lego League robotics tournament at Lake Forest Country Day School on Saturday, December 3. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER.
gether as part of a team.” The competitors score by programming the robots to perform a series of tasks ranging from simpler ones worth some points to more complex challenges with higher value but likely taking more time, according to Whelan. The youngsters understand
the concept but they explain it differently than Whelan. They work together to build their machine. They also go through four rounds of competition but only their highest score counts. Between efforts, they do some tweaking. “We started from scratch,”
said Will Meyer of Lake Bluff, a member of the LFCDS Diving Dolphins. “We took all our ideas and came up with one robot. There was a lot of trial and error and made it work.” Leo Anderson of Highland Park, another member of the Diving Dolphins, said they attack
the easier tasks first to run up the score, leaving the harder ones for later. After each round they talk to see if they should make changes in their approach, according to Will Meyer of Lake Forest, another member of the Continued on PG 12
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