SciTech Tuesday: The National WWII Museum’s 2016 Robotics Challenge

The theme of the 4th Annual National WWII  Robotics Challenge was Can Do! That was the motto of the Seabees in World War II. The Seabees (officially they were the United States Naval Construction Force) built bases, airstrips, and all sorts of things, especially in the Pacific Theater. Their nickname came from the fact that they were organized in Construction Battalions. Their average age was older than most of the military, because these were experienced construction workers and working engineers given this special assignment.

The war in the Pacific, which is the focus of The National WWII Museum’s newest gallery, The Road to Tokyo, held many challenges. The volcanic islands, the vast expanses of ocean between them, the lack of infrastructure (or the destroyed infrastructure), volcanoes and earthquakes–all made the logistics of this campaign a great challenge. Robotics was not really a part of World War II, but solving problems by extending the abilities of current technology was. Today, robotics is a great way to extend the abilities of technology, and it is a way to engage young people in learning to solve problems with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

The Robotics Challenge has two parts–A Design Project and the Robot Competition–and involves teams of up to 10 3rd-8th grade students.

In the Robot Competition, students use Lego Mindstorms robots to accomplish a series of tasks. They program their robot to complete as many tasks as it can in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. This year the tasks included moving ships to a harbor, crossing the equator, and fighting malaria. The tasks use models and analogies to teach the history of WWII at the same time as they teach programming and problem-solving skills.

The Design Project this year asked students to design a Rhino Ferry with a limited range of supplies. Rhino Ferries were pontoons, basically sections of pontoon bridges or harbors, with engines on them. They had to test and redesign until they came up with a final design, and to propose a cost and construction plan. This project helps build student skills in STEM that might not be used as much in the competition.

We wouldn’t have been able to have had a successful challenge without the help of a dedicated and enthusiastic team of volunteers, who assisted The National WWII Museum’s Education  staff in running this event. In particular, Chevron (which also provided major funding for the challenge) sent many volunteers. The robotics team from Fontainebleu High School served as referees, and this was a crucial assist.

Forty teams participated in the 2016 Robotics Challenge–36 made it to Challenge Day. I think all of us AND all  of them are winners, since we are preparing these youngsters for the future. The winners in each category of awards are listed below.

Rhino Ferry Project

1. Gretna No. 2–Barrow’s Bravehearts
2. Phyllis Wheatley–761st Tank Division
3. St. George Episcopal–Higgin’s Heroes

Robot Design and Process

1. After the Bell Robotics–Legotrons
2. Madisonville Jr High
3. Faith Christian Academy

Robotics Competition

1. TIE Patrick Taylor Academy–TIE Fighters and Central Alabama Community College–Legonators
2. Faith Christian Academy
3. Girl Scouts of Louisiana East–The B7 Teens

Special Award

Metairie Park Country Day School–The CDs (outstanding work by a very young team)

Grand Champions

Girl Scouts of Louisiana East–The B7 Teens (all around excellence and amazing teamwork)

Posted by Rob Wallace, STEM Education Coordinator at The National WWII Museum.

SciTech Tuesday: The Ring of Fire and WWII

On September 1, 1923 at 11:58 AM an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 occurred in a bay just south of Tokyo. Tokyo and Yokohama, a relatively young port city with a strong international influence, were the closest large population centers. After the earthquake a tsunami with an 11 meter high crest hit Yokohama and surrounding areas. Fires spread throughout Tokyo and Yokohama, and with water mains broken by the quake there was no way to fight them. The earthquake led to a 2 meter uplift on the coast, and a 4.5 meter horizontal displacement of land. Even though it lasted only 14 seconds, it was a huge amount of energy released. 570, 000 homes were destroyed, and more than 140,000 people were killed. With telegraph technology connected to radio, news from Japan to the countries of the West moved rapidly. The US and other countries mobilized support for victims of the earthquake within 24 hours.

Japan had annexed Korea more than a decade earlier, and, in the months before what came to be called the Great Kanto Earthquake, a group working for the liberation of Korea had been conducting terrorist attacks. Rumors spread in the aftermath of the quake that Koreans were looting and starting fires. Violent attacks on Koreans, and anyone thought to be Korean, followed. The government tried to protect Koreans, but also covered up any attacks that occurred.

This event, and Japan’s dependence upon the West for support in recovery, fueled growing nationalism. The expansion of Japanese influence and the later war in the Pacific can be traced in part to this earthquake in 1923.

Earthquakes were, and still are, common in that part of the Pacific. So are volcanoes. These geological factors shaped the islands, and when US troops fought there in WWII these conditions shaped logistics, and even the path of the war.

There is a diamond shaped continental plate—the Philippine plate-pinned between the much larger Pacific and Eurasian plates. The Pacific plate is moving slowly but relentlessly west, pushing the Philippine plate ahead of it. Where the plates meet the Pacific sinks below both the Philippine and Eurasian plates, and the Philippine plate dives under the Eurasian plate. This pattern of plate convergence is called subduction, and leads to earthquakes and volcanoes. Where the plates come together in the ocean they form volcanoes which can emerge from the ocean, creating islands. From New Guinea to the Marianas and Iwo Jima (on the east side, between the Philippine and Pacific plates), from the Philippines to Okinawa and up (on the west side, between the Eurasian and Philippine plates) to Japan (split by the Eurasian and Pacific plates), all those islands are formed from volcanic activity. Some of those islands are very old, mostly dead, volcanoes, and the coral reefs that surround them (like Tinian, or the Bikini atoll). Others are younger, and form very high tropical peaks (like in the Philippines). Iwo Jima, which in its original Japanese name means ‘sulfur island,’ was formed by slightly different volcanic activity that led to its peculiar geography. There is abundant groundwater on Iwo Jima, all of it very hot and enriched in minerals. The frequent volcanic activity there is mostly steam created by the interaction of groundwater and magma (molten rock).

The geological theory that explained volcanoes and earthquake patterns, called Plate Tectonics, wasn’t solidified until the late 1960s. So troops went into this zone, where there were more than two dozen large earthquakes (> 6.0) between 1940 and 1946, without any way to predict what was going on, or any understanding of what each stop on the island-hopping path to Tokyo would bring.

Posted by Rob Wallace, STEM Education Coordinator at The National WWII Museum.

SciTech Tuesday: The Birth of the North Atlantic Air Route

One of the undersold stories of the Allied victory in WWII is logistics. Thousands of planes and millions of men, and countless tons of supplies made their way across large oceans to the battle fronts. Much of what and who made its way to Europe went by way of what might seem a strange set of hops across the North Atlantic. From Eastern Canada, to Greenland, to Iceland and then to Scotland, newly built airfields accommodated a great traffic moving mostly eastward.

Preparation for this effort began even before the US entered the war. The Destroyers for Bases agreement provided the beginning of this process. In May 1941 US troops from the First Air Force 21^st Reconnaissance Squadron arrived in Canada. With them was Captain Elliott Roosevelt, the president’s son, who made surveys in Canada that led to several bases built there, and eventually to bases and airfields in Greenland and Iceland.

The curvature of the Earth, the Earth’s rotation, and prevailing winds make this North Atlantic route a relatively efficient path from North America to Europe. However, when it started use in Spring of 1942, losses were at about 10%. Winter weather over the North Atlantic is treacherous, and even in Summer it can be risky. Today planes fly the route at 30,000-40,000 feet, aided in their Eastward path by the jet stream. Decades ago the planes didn’t often reach those altitudes, and winds were more a hindrance than an aide. The National WWII Museum displays a B-17 named My Gal Sal in the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center. This plane made an emergency landing on the ice of Greenland when forced down in bad weather during one of the early flights on the North Atlantic route.

The development of the route led the US to explore Greenland, and purge the German troops thinly scattered across it. They were maintaining weather stations on the Greenland ice, and making forays into the seas to disrupt shipping. Eventually the US made its own weather stations and bases there, including three important airfields. These locations maintain their strategic importance today.

Air transport also took a route East across the Mid-Atlantic. This route was much longer, but less at risk from poor weather. Planes equipped with extra fuel tanks left southern Florida for Bermuda, stopping in the Azores before heading to Cornwall.

Great Britain had maintained troops and bases in Iceland for a few years by this team, in an uneasy relationship with the Iceland government. The US took over these operations in July of 1941, under an agreement with the government of Denmark. Construction on new airstrips was undertaken by both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Navy Seabees, and all bases were completed by late Summer of 1943.

The airfield at Reykjavik was turned over to the Icelandic government after the war and became a civilian airport. The base and airfield at Keflavik (formerly Meeks) became an important strategic part of NATO’s plans during the Cold War.

Today the North Atlantic route is highly regulated and one of the busiest corridors for air traffic in the world. Pioneered by very young pilots in the 1940s who couldn’t take advantage of all its benefits, the flyway today binds continents together today with primarily economic, and not military, exchanges.

Posted by Rob Wallace, STEM Education Coordinator at The National WWII Museum.