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GIHS brings home Tech Wars championship Story and photos by Larry Austin
Grand Island High School’s competitive excellence is not limited to the athletic fields. Wednesday at Niagara County Community College, Grand Island took first place overall in the 13th annual Tech Wars competition for students of technology. A contingent of 83 students from GIHS and Connor Middle School topped 20 schools for the championship in events that tested their know-how in engineering, technology and architecture. Competitions included events in robot sumo wrestling, hockey bots, bridge building, and computer-aided design. GIHS technology teacher Carl Koppmann noted the school’s students finished second last year in their first visit to Tech Wars. “It feels good to have the kids come here and try their designs against other schools. It really helps validate what they do in the classroom,” Koppmann said. Mark Voisinet, associate professor in the technology division at Niagara County Community College, helped run the 13th edition of Tech Wars, which were conceived by Bill Neidlinger, a Newfane teacher. Tech Wars was a virtual Olympiad of events taking place in two NCCC gymnasiums with hundreds of competing students from school across Western New York. The 20 individual events award five points for first, three for second and one for third. In several events, GI swept all three places to take nine points, Voisinet said. In several events, such as hockey bots and bridge building, GI swept all three places to earn the maximum nine points. (“We should be good at building bridges. We live on an Island,” Koppmann said.)
Competition in technology follows the model of competition in interscholastic sports, Voisinet said. GI celebrated one of its most successful fall sports seasons in school history this year, so it’s perhaps no surprise the technology students are winning in competitions of their own in the winter as well. “If we’re going to nourish the bodies of athletes, why don’t we nourish the minds of the future scientists, engineers and technologists of the world? This is an event to open up the eyes of students and let them know there are very real and very strong career paths in engineering, science and technology,” Voisinet said. Nick Kellner, who played football on the Vikings team that advanced to the Section VI Class A finals in Ralph Wilson Stadium this year, was part of the bridge design team. A bridge he worked on for eight weeks held 340 pounds and weighed just 4 pounds and 9 ounces. Kellner said winning in athletics and winning at Tech Wars share similar attributes. “It has to do with teamwork,” he said. “You need to depend on your other players in football and you need to do that with your other partners in this too.” Success at Tech Wars for GI follows the school’s earlier success at the annual trebuchet-building contest at the Great Pumpkin Festival in Clarence, where GI was the only school to hit the target with a pumpkin projectile using a man-made trebuchet. The school is taking the time and effort to look for different approaches in teaching engineering, architecture and computer-aided design, Koppmann said, to improve the instruction and make GI tech “not the same old shop class.” “I think we have a really good department. There are a lot of good programs in Western New York, but I think over the last five years we’ve made strides to push the level of technology in education,” Koppmann said. The biggest thing that sets GI apart is that the teachers push the students to do their best. “When they think their best is good enough, we push them just that much further. We’re really starting to get some real good designs out of them,” Koppmann said. “Everyone is brought together in Grand Island in the tech program, and our teachers are so great. They just inspire us to succeed,” added Kellner.
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