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Friday, February 26, 2016
Volume 12 • Issue No. 9
BA Team Wins Maine State VEX Championship, Qualifies for Worlds
Left to right: Matt DesRochers, Zach Miller, and Ian Miller, standing proudly with their winning robot and the two trophies, the Programming Skills Award and the Tournament Champion Award.
SOUTH BERWICK The Berwick Academy Robotics team has made unbelievable strides in just a few short years. That fact became most evident this past weekend when they took home the first place title in the Maine State VEX “Nothing But Net� Championship in Hampden. The team earned the Runner-Up title in the Southern Maine VEX Tournament in November, which qualified them for the state competition. Competing against over 40 other teams, the Berwick group held steady for 81 qualifying
rounds and 9 matches, remaining undefeated until the final round, where they took 2 out of 3 matches for the tournament win. The win qualified the team to move on to the VEX World Championship in Kentucky this April. During the match, the team also won the Programming Skills challenge, which is the same as the main competition but involves no driver input. The robot is pre-programmed to complete its task, and the Berwick team scored 120 points in the competition. In addition to their championship win, Berwick
was also awarded the “Amaze Award�, a judge’s award which is described as follows: The “Amaze Award� is presented to a team that has built a competition robot that clearly demonstrates overall quality. A solid mechanical design along with demonstrated robot programming, robustness, strong performance and consistency are key attributes assessed for this award. The Upper School Robotics club was established in 2004, and See ROBOTS page 6...
Rotary’s 8th Annual Geo Quiz Event March 4 YORK COUNTY Contestants trying to decide if Vanuato is an island or a mountain or whether Djibouti is in Africa or Asia will compete and at the same time help raise money to help enslaved women and girls a world away in Nepal. The 8th annual South Berwick-Eliot Rotary Commu-
Index
Page
Arts & Entertainment 10-11 Business & Finance 17-19 Calendar of Events 17 Classifieds 29-31 Computer Lady 36 Health & Fitness 12-16 Home & Business 32-34 Library News 8 Obituaries 29 Pets 28 Puzzles 38 Real Estate 25-27,40 Sports 34 Where To Dine 20-24
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nity Geography Quiz on Friday, March 4, at the Great Works School in South Berwick will help raise money for an organization in Nepal that helps rescue enslaved girls and women. “...we wanted to help raise funds for an organization working to help these people lead better lives,� said Helen Goransson, Rotarian from Eliot who is helping to organizing the event, called “Where in the World is Kathmandu.� Maiti Nepal, the organization that will benefit from the geo quiz, goes into the country-
side to educate females about the dangers of trafficking, according to Goransson. The organization also patrols the border between Nepal and India and rescues victims from across the border, then brings them back to give them food, shelter and vocational training. As part of the geo quiz, 16 teams will compete, including teachers, parents, business leaders and students from all five schools in the Marshwood District as well as students from BerSee QUIZ page 5...
Winter Home of Maine Atlantic Puffins Uncovered MAINE New findings recently announced by the National Audubon Society at the Pacific Seabird Group convention in Oahu, Hawaii reveal the first-ever mapped winter grounds of the Maine-breeding Atlantic Puffin, a species of conservation concern. Long a mystery, geolocation data helped discover surprising winter pathways and migration timing for where puffins spend much of their year when they are not at their nesting islands. “Potential threats of commercial fishing, offshore wind,
and climate change have prompted the need for information on the non-breeding movements and wintering locations of seabirds that nest in the Gulf of Maine,� said Dr. Stephen Kress, Director
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of the Audubon Seabird Restoration Program. “The discovery that Maine’s puffins winter over submerged Atlantic canyons and sea mountains provides another reason to protect these areas, and better understand what needs to be done to reverse population declines.� Once common along Maine’s coast, Atlantic Puffins nearly disappeared there due to hunting and egg collecting in the 1800’s. Since 1973, Audubon’s Seabird Restoration Program, pioneered by Kress, has restored breeding Atlantic Puffins and
other seabirds to islands off the coast of Maine. Today, the program has reestablished more than 1,000 puffin pairs to three crucial islands. Until recently, little was known about the movements and distribution of Maine’s Atlantic Puffins outside of the breeding season in May to August. In 2011, Audubon researchers recovered geolocators from two puffins tagged at Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge back in 2009. These two tracking devices sugSee PUFFINS page 17...
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The Monster Mappers competed in the South Berwick-Eliot Rotary Community Geo Bee in 2013. The Mappers team included Vivian Burnham and Nate Reppucci of the Great Works School; George Taran and Cynthia Moloney, quiz organizer and Great Works School librarian. (courtesy photo.)
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Health & Fitness A section concerning your health... INSIDE:
PG 12-16
Also check out our section on
BUSINESS & FINANCE PG 17-19
Pets Start the New Year with a new fuzzy family member!
PG 28