Spruce Creek High School students showcase their STEM passions at the Maker Faire

Spruce Creek High School's Academy of Information Technology and Robotics has given 130 students the chance to build. Here is what some students created.

By Zach Fedewa
| 3:40 p.m. March 4, 2019

"Tombstone" goes head to head with "Bonebreaker" in a homemade battlebot arena in the library of Spruce Creek High School at the Maker Faire on Feb. 28. Photo by Zach Fedewa

Aiden Walb, Carlee Stone, Andrew Lafferty, and Xen Evenson perform repairs on their robot in the library of Spruce Creek High School at the Maker Faire on Feb. 28. Photo by Zach Fedewa

Trevor Settembre and team member Kenneth Chen proudly hold up Tombstone after winning a match against "Bonebreaker" at the Maker Faire on Feb. 28. Photo by Zach Fedewa

Aiden St. John, Candyn Seofield, and Conner Collie stand in front of their battle robot, "Bonebreaker" at the Maker Faire on Feb. 28. Photo by Zach Fedewa

Aiden St. John stands in front of his fully 3D printed F1 RC Race Car in the library of Spruce Creek High School at the Maker Faire on Feb. 28. Photo by Zach Fedewa

Aiden St. John's 3D printed Formula One RC Racecar took over a week to print. Each of the wheels took 5 hours to print. Photo by Zach Fedewa

Eric Piper demonstrates how the plasma speaker works in the library of Spruce Creek High School at the Maker Faire on Feb. 28. Photo by Zach Fedewa

Eric Piper built several plasma speakers with the help of his mentor at Spruce Creek High School at the Maker Faire on Feb. 28. Photo by Zach Fedewa

Alexis Maenza is trying out a homemade electric longboard in the library of Spruce Creek High School at the Maker Faire on Feb. 28. Photo by Zach Fedewa

Hunter Spegele shows off his MSE-6 Mouse Droid from Star Wars in the library of Spruce Creek High School at the Maker Faire on Feb. 28. Photo by Zach Fedewa

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Trevor Settembre spent six weeks constructing a 20-pound battle robot.

It was inspired from “Tombstone” on the TV show “Battlebots," and participated in an homemade area in the middle of the Spruce Creek High School's library during the school's third-annual Maker Faire on Thursday, Feb. 28. Hosted by the SCHS Academy of Information Technology and Robotics, the Maker Faire is an opportunity for students in the program to show off their projects.

Settembre's robot is an example of one of those projects.

“I love building robots," Settembre said. "A passion of mine has been to build one of these, but never had the parts and tools."

He comes from a background in programming, and hasn’t delved much into fabrication, but he said AITR allowed him the workshop space and materials to build his battle robot. The program has also encouraged Settembre to grow his passion for the STEM field. After some time and effort, Settembre and his teammare Kenneth Chen built their robot, and competed against "Bonebreaker," a robot constructed by Conner Collie, Candyn Seofield and Aiden St. John.

“[AITR] allows you to do something out of your comfort zone, you need that," Settembre said.

Collie said that when the students returned from StemFest, everyone wanted to start building "battlebots," triggering the construction of the homemade arena for the Maker Faire. After two minutes, Settembre's robot disabled Collie's.

“Our team chose to model our robot after tombstone because it wins,” Settembre said.

Also at the Maker Faire was Eric Piper. He is one of the 130 students that has had their passions enabled through AITR.

“AITR has taught me how to solder, and how to do it well,” Piper said.

He brought in a speaker made with electromagnets that forms sound through the release of plasma. Piper had his phone plugged in to a circuit board, which was connected to an electromagnet.

“The electricity builds up and jumps through the spark gap back and forth between the two coils," Piper said. "When the coils can no longer contain the energy, it is released as plasma and that’s how the sound forms."

The Maker Faire also showcased a few film buffs. Hunter Spegele decided he wanted to create a replica of Star Wars' MSE-6 mouse droid. He used an RC car as the frame, put foam around the base and cut out some acrylic to form the body.

"The teacher that chose to mentor me had a lot of RC cars in her room, and had a background building RC cars," Spegele said. "She was very helpful."

Spegele and his fellow classmates built dozens of projects for the Maker Faire, ranging from 3D printed Formula One race cars, to electric skateboards and mechanical stage attire.