Family STEAM Night returns to Gateway’s Ramsey Elementary in Monroeville

Move over, Steph Curry.

When it comes to basketball-shooting accuracy, Sally may have your number.

Sally, named after the late astronaut Sally Ride, is a robot constructed by members of Gateway High School’s Quasics Robotics Club. And during Family STEAM Night at Gateway’s Ramsey Elementary, Sally put on a heck of a show in the school gymnasium.

The robot’s main task actually is to shoot spheres closer in size to tennis balls during competitions. But according to club head coach Sean McMahon:

“It turns out that if you park it at the right distance, it can also play basketball. Once I saw there was a hoop here, I said, that’s where we’re going.”

And so Ramsey students, plus their younger and older relatives, had the opportunity to marvel at Sally’s capabilities while also taking part in a variety of activities intended to further their knowledge in the subjects of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

Joining the Quasics club in providing and monitoring the activities were representatives of Ramsey Elementary PTO, the presenting organization, along with Monroeville Public Library, Duquesne Women in STEM and, new this school year, the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority.

About 100 students registered for the festivities, according to Nicole Larson, PTO treasurer and founder of Family STEAM Night, which took a covid-related hiatus before returning in the spring.

“What I really wanted when I started it was to have a free event, so that it was accessible to all of our students, which we’re able to do with the help of our participating groups,” she said. “And also, it’s a community-building night, a way for us all to interact in an educational, fun way.”

Quasics’ involvement pretty much is standard procedure, as club members strive to inspire others to become interested in science and technology.

“The best way we found to do that with kids is to go out into the community and show them the robots as often as we can, so they get the idea that these things are cool, and they’re something they can see themselves doing,” McMahon said. “We try to go out as often as we can. Our best year was 2019. We were out 54 times, pre-covid.”

Among the Quasics members are ninth-graders Baylee Blanton and Harita Venkatesh, who joined a similar club in middle school.

“Technology, robotics: That was our thing. So we signed up, and we had a great experience with the team,” Baylee said, including a first-place finish in one of the categories at the state level.

She and Harita now coach younger students.

“Baylee is really good with kids. I’m good with the technical stuff,” Harita said. “And together, it’s a wonderful pairing.”

Both girls’ tech interests fit right in with an educational objective of Katie Friend, Ramsey’s principal.

“Having these young women in there from Duquesne University and the other places is really poignant to me, sending a message to our young girls that they, too, can be scientists,” she said. “That’s been such a man-driven world for a lot of years.”

As for Family STEAM Night, plus the school’s book fair and pickup for a pie sale held concurrently, she enjoyed the return of evening happenings at Ramsey.

“We’re really trying to bring as many people out as we can,” Friend said. “It kind of feels healing to see everybody here together having fun, and learning on top of it.”