The Grocery Grabber – November 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:

  1. providing students an opportunity to experience authentically and firsthand the process of engineering as they work as engineers to complete a design challenge
  2. providing students an opportunity to work as a group to collaborate and communicate to achieve a common goal
  3. 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 STEAM disciplines.

The November Challenge was to create a grocery grabber. Students were given 45 minutes to construct a two-foot grabber that could reach small food items that were either high on a shelf or far across a table. The groups were provided cardboard, wood materials such as dowels and popsicle sticks, bolts and screws, netting, and plasic bubble wrap. To test the grabbers, each group had a representative team member grab six separate items and put them in a mini “shopping cart” without dropping or touching the items. The items included a box of tea, a box of cake, a spice jar, an apple, a clementine, and a sweet potato. The group that completed the task fastest was named the winner.

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.

–Natalie Munn