Oyster Bay High School has state-of-the-art spaces for students to collaborate
OYSTER BAY, N.Y. -- At Oyster Bay High School, they have it all. That includes a brand new innovation lab, where kids code, 3D print, build robotics from the ground up and, most of all, collaborate.
"The stuff that we have now looks nothing like the high school of 40 years ago. We've got engineering classes, we've got robotics," teacher Andrew Schlendorf told CBS New York's Chris Wragge. "I wasn't involved in any of this and, somehow, I ended up kind of in this seat teaching all of it."
"Some people are just really good -- like, he's really good at coding, and then other people are better at the physical aspects, and some people just are good at getting their visions out and drawing them out onto the board," sophomore Alex Arnedos said.
"I love to 3D print. Ever since I came here, I saw our 3D printers in the library and I became inspired. And I taught myself how to 3D print, and now I use 3D printing to help the robotics club, and I work together with my 3D printing club to help create new 3D printing creations, like our robot launcher and our claw on a robot," senior Matthew Zakarian added.
"This place, it's a very good environment to work in, and we have this open space and it's just a creative environment," said another student. "You can do whatever you want here and just learn, and it just grows your mind."
The creativity crème rises to the top at a young age. The school is a seventh through 12th grade high school, so the younger engineers get a shot to show the older kids what they can do too.
"Some of the younger kids coming in with their equipment right now, intimidating to see them starting that young?" Wragge asked.
"What are we going to do? We're going to leave soon, they're taking our spots," the student replied.
"I'm an eighth [grader], so we did -- it's a robot and a research project. So our research project was meant to help disabled people with their environment," said eighth grader Sienna Stewart. "We chose to do an e-vision thing, where you would see real-life experiences using [an] oculus and a haptic chair."
If robotics aren't your thing, how about the school's very own morning show, "Bay News Now."
Wragge spoke with Grace Curry, the anchor and a star in the making.
"Any time I go to the elementary schools for different organizations that I'm part of, all of them ask me, 'Are you that girl from Bay News Now?' Random adults that come, like, 'I've seen you on Bay News Now,'" she said.
"The kids watch 'Bay News Now' every day, they see other kids on camera and they're like, 'Hey, I want to do that.' And they want to work behind the scenes, so I'm excited how much everybody has really embraced all the different roles there are, too -- director, behind the scenes, in front of the camera, teleprompter, everything" said news veteran Alex Dollin.
The studio has it all, just like the real thing. Everyone works together to put on the best broadcast possible -- no matter what age.
