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The Oakville Beaver, W e d n e s d a y M a y 15, 2002 - A 3 Golden moment for River Oaks students Two teams bring home the gold in skills competition By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF H a lto n P r id e 2 0 0 2 to b e h e ld a t S h e r id a n Halton Pride 2002 -- the region's annual gay and lesbian pride day -- is set for Saturday, June 8, on the grounds of Sheridan College. Since its inception in 2000. the event has been held at Bronte Creek Provincial Park, but because of uncertainty sur rounding the OPSEU strike, the venue was changed to Sheridan. Organizers feared the park might not be open in time to hold the picnic. The event will run noon- 6 p.m. From 8 p.m.-1 a.m., activ ities move inside to the student bar The Cage for a dance. Tickets cost $10 each and will support next year's event. They're the best in Ontario. Two teams of River Oaks Public School students brought home the gold from the Ontario Technological Skills Competition held recently in Waterloo. The two teams of four were among the elementary and second ary students that won their chance to compete by taking top spot in their category at the Halton Skills Challenge held earlier in April. Representing Grades 4-6 River Oaks students in the Technical Design Challenge were: Alex Appleby, Carrie Kalata, Jordan Haynes, and Candice Syme, all 12 years old and in Grade 6. This was their first time compet ing and they took on two different challenges and a presentation to win their medal. The first challenge was a car made from a mouse trap. They were given two hours to adapt it to go far ther and faster. "We used CDs for wheels because the larger the wheels, the faster the car was," explained Appleby. Kalata said their car travelled three metres in less than one second. Their second challenge involved how they could make food and sup ply drops from benefactors in South America to the site of a plane crash in northern Canada. Again, they had two hours to design a device that would do the job. Theirs was the only team that even attempted to build a contrap tion that could make several drops -- though they didn't have time to pull that off successfully. For their presentation to judges, each team member took on a differ ent job -- engineer, electrician, environmentalist and sales. "It feels good to have won. We're the best in Ontario," beamed Appleby who is glad he spent his first year at a new school working during lunchtime and after school on this effort. The Waterloo competition was old news for the Grades 7-8 team M H M o r r is o n H o u s e Riziero Vertolli · Oakville Beaver These students from River Oaks Public School have every reason to be smiling. Two teams from that school brought home the gold from the Ontario Technological Skills Competition held recently in Waterloo. Pictured are, from left, Stephanie Catricala, Jordan Haynes, Candice, Syme, Lora Fenn, C arrie Kalata, Trevor Hewer and Alex Appleby. Absent from the photograph was Adam Hetherington. that included Lora Fenn. Stephanie Catricala, Trevor Hewer and Adam Hetherington. The news this year was that this quartet brought home the gold medal as opposed to last year's sil ver earning in the Lego Robotics Challenge. These senior students had to build a trio of different Lego robots and program them to meet three challenges. Dubbed the Challenge of the Rings (taken from The Loud o f the Rings and Harry Potter) the first challenge was Dragon Eyes. Here, a robot could only pick up red bricks from an assortment of red and blue bricks -- within a designated zone. The River Oaks team used heat, light and motion sensors to program their robot to ignore blue bricks and stay within the delineated black boundary lines. The second Quidditch Game saw their robot back up to a PingPong ball dispenser, catch the ball, wend its way through obstacles and then shoot the ball through a hoop. The third event dubbed Mount Doom, saw their robot maneuver its way up a 30-degree slope while being driven by a "hobbit" opera tor. detect heat, stop, turn 180degrees Sid continue back down the slope without overturning. This group also used a digital camera and computer display board to develop an "ad" for their designs. The team invested a lot of time teaching themselves how to use the computer programs that would enable their robots to master their challenges. "We don't learn any program ming in classes," said Fenn, adding this is more along the lines of what first-year university engineering students tackle. Fenn said she definitely has changed her mind about putting her math abilities to use in the engineering field instead of stock brokering as she first thought she might do for a career. Catricala, who comes from an engineering family background, said she's glad she took the time to learn what she did. but that she's still interested in the theatre. Both girls said there's no doubt that Hewer will pursue an engi neering career. "I've grown up with Lego, since I was a kid," he admitted. The senior students said they'll probably compete in the chal lenges again next year when they get to high school -- and at Whites Oaks Secondary School this year, Adrienne Fraser and Amanda Somerville took home a silver medal in TV/video produc tion while Peter Horvat earned bronze in precision machining, and Heather Fry earned bronze in baking. In all, Halton's public school students won 13 medals, including five gold, three silver and five bronze. Secondary students com peted individually in the fields of architectural and mechanical CADD. TV/video production, cabinet making, landscape garden ing, auto collision repair, precision machining, restaurant services, baking and floristry. 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