October Engineering Challenge Results

Each month, our students have the opportunity to compete in our after-school Engineering Challenge competition.

The goals of the Challenge include providing students an opportunity to:

  1. experience authentically and firsthand the process of engineering as they work as engineers to complete a design challenge
  2. work as a group to collaborate and communicate to achieve a common goal
  3. compete as an academic team in a different type of competition than our yearly science fair, thus expanding the opportunities for students to gain recognition for their accomplishments in science and related STEAM disciplines.

The goal of the October Copy Center Cleanup Challenge was to build an electromagnet and use it to create a device that could pick up staples from the floor and deposit them into a cup.  Students were given 45 minutes create their devices.  They were provided bolts, wires, and batteries to create the electromagnet, and they were required to wire a switch into their system so that after picking up staples magnetically, the circuit could be broken and allow the staples to fall into a collection cup.  They had to mount their system onto a meter stick so that the staples could be picked up without bending over.  They were required to collect and deposit 36 individual staples, and the group with the fastest time was declared the winner.

Thank you to Elsbeth Todd (Art/Technology), Dana Munn (Science), Michael Lavers (Math), and Chris Connors (Art/Technology) for working with me as a team to plan and provide these opportunities.

– Natalie Munn