Each month, our students will have the opportunity to compete in our after-school Engineering Challenge.
The goals of the Challenge include:
- providing students an opportunity to experience authentically and firsthand the process of engineering as they work as engineers to complete a design challenge
- providing students an opportunity to work as a group to collaborate and communicate to achieve a common goal
- providing students an opportunity to compete as an academic team in a different type of competition than our yearly science fair, thus expanding the opportunitites for students to gain recognition for their accomplishments in science and related STEM disciplines.
The October Challenge was to create a lockbox with the most locks or latches. Students were given 45 minutes to create a box to hold a package of M&Ms, and then secure that box to the maximum degree with locks or latches. They were given cardboard, string, wire (paperclips), wooden sticks, and rubber bands, and they were not allowed to have latches that were tied or only tape-based. They had to use at least three different types of latches, and the latches also had to be re-latchable. We were excited to have a production-style challenge as our first engineering opportunity, and the winners are listed below.
Thank you to Anna Cotton (Alt Ed Science), Dana Munn (Science), Michael Lavers (Math), and Chris Connors (Art) for working with me as a team to plan and provide these opportunities.
First Place Team = 48 Latches
Tim Roberts, Russell Shapiro, Eli Hanschka