From computer programming to using tools the Mighty Monkey Wrenches, stationed in the NJ School for Deaf, have functioned as Ewing High School’s robotics team, teaching multiple generations of Ewing students STEM skills. Every year, this robotics team creates a brand new robot from the ground up from the building to the coding being student-led. The Mighty Monkey Wrenches has multiple mentors in engineering fields, from urban planners to mechanical engineers, to help students use the tools safely and become leaders on the team.
The Mighty Monkey Wrenches offers several sub-teams which operate in fabrication, CAD, business, and programming. Each sub-team has mentors to support them and functions as one network, capable of building a fully functioning complex robot in just 8 weeks. Each team has subject matter experts to lead and train the sub-team. Above the subject matter experts are competition roles: Driver, Operator, Technician, Human player, and Pit crew, who have tasks specifically for each role during the competition including: driving the robot, operating any task the robot has to do, preparing the robot, functioning as an in-game element, and fixing any problems on the robot, respectively.
Above the competition roles are the Captain, Technical manager, and Business manager, who lead the team by teaching new members, helping to gain sponsors, organizing events, setting the team goals, and monitoring members. The multitude of leadership opportunities the Mighty Monkey Wrenches has to offer can grant multiple members a sense of duty to the team and build their characters into strong leaders of the STEM community.
This team has been active in Ewing High School since 2007 and over that time the team has won multiple awards and competitions. Each competition at the state, regional, and international level against multiple other robotics teams across the world.
All of these teams and competitions are organized by FIRST Inspires, who have multiple robotics teams in almost every country in the world, with the goal of creating a supportive global community who prepare the next generation for the future. This organization was both created and run by Dean Kamen since 1989 and over this time he has created pathways for kids from elementary school to highschool. Even beyond that, alumni of the program are able to come back to their teams as mentors for their teams or as volunteers for competitions, which proves the global community Dean Kamen strove to create and came to fruition.
