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| Mulrennan Mustechs parent coaches Bob Sippel, left, and Patrick Stanley. The teacher advisor is Mark Roberts. Photo: Linda Chion Kenny, Special Correspondent. |
The Mustechs of Mulrennann Middle School — named for the school’s mascot, the mustang, and the club’s technology focus — are set to travel to the University of Arkansas for the FLL Razorback Invitational, May 14-17. It’s one of four such world-class championships scheduled through July, the others being in Australia, California and South Africa.
“They’re the first team in [the School District of] Hillsborough County to advance to the finals,” according to Mark Roberts, teacher sponsor for the Mustechs. “They’ll be there with kids from India, South Africa, Korea and many more countries.”
“I am super-excited about this because we know that we have some excellent coaches and teams here in our school district and it’s nice for the Mustechs to be chosen to represent the state of Florida at the world invitational,” said Desh Bagley, founder and owner of TechPlayzone in Riverview. She also is the outreach manger for the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center (FLATE) at Hillsborough Community College, which is providing the Mustechs with team T-shirts.
The Mustechs story started six years ago, when parent coach Patrick Stanley took his children to an engineering exposition at the University of South Florida. An engineer by trade, he said he wanted to expose his kids to “some exciting things about engineering.”
There, he became acquainted with the FIRST LEGO League, which aims to advance robotics competitions as the ultimate “sport of the mind.” Stanley had a ready ear when he approached Mulrennan principal Tim Ducker about starting a team there. Roberts agreed to sponsor the club and the team launched five years ago.
Stanley has been coaching ever since – three years with his child, Will, on the team, and now with his daughter, Olivia, and her teammates.
“It’s an awesome program for the kids,” he said. “It
teaches them problem-solving skills and it teaches them if you don’t get
things right the first time you test it, modify it and do it again. And
if you get it right, you run it again, because even if it works a first
time it might not work a second time.”
That’s exactly what the team did in engineering a product that met the specifications for this year’s challenge and topic — “world-class education.” The team conducted in-field research, visiting parent coach Bob Sippel’s wife, Sheryl, at the Dale Mabry campus of Hillsborough Community College, where she serves as program manager of mathematics.
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Source: TBO.com
