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Middle school in Engineering Design Challenge
Originally posted February 28, 2012
Pictures of our 6th/7th Grade students at the engineering challenge - see story below
Steve Pittman
Principal
Union 6th/7th GradeCenter
We had a great time; students did an excellent job representing our school. One of the GT groups won 1st in middle school air boat and a Focus team won 3rd in the same category.
Teacher Adrienne Fore
Budding engineers take on aquatic challenge at OSU-Tulsa event
BY SARA PLUMMER Tulsa World Staff Writer
(Reprinted with Permission. This is not an endorsement.)
As the clock ticked by, some teams calmly continued to work on their small model-size boats they built from scratch. Other teams were a little more frantic when the announcement came they only had an hour left before the races started.
The Main Hall commons area at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa was bustling Thursday during the annual Engineering Design Challenge.
Nearly 220 students from 15 area elementary, middle and high schools participated in the challenge. The students, broken into teams of four, had about three and a half hours to design and build a motorized boat. Then the students raced their water crafts against the clock for the fastest time.
The races are done in a 10-foot-long PVC half pipe filled with water. Awards are given for categories of fastest boat, aesthetics and teamwork.
Carl Latino, professor of engineering at OSU, started the competition in 2002 to expose students to a college campus and the field of engineering. Now in its 10th year, the event is held annually during National Engineering Week.
"I've always believed you learn a lot better when you're enjoying what you're doing," Latino said. "Engineers don't do obscure things, they solve real problems."
Everything needed to construct the boat, including materials for the body, propeller and motor, are provided on competition day at stations scattered around the perimeter of the Main Hall commons area, where the students work on their boats.
Students and faculty members from the OSU's engineering department, as well as engineers from Spirit AeroSystems, the event's sponsor, assist the teams during the design and construction phase.
Ten years ago, only about 25 students participated in the challenge. This year, Latino said he had to turn some schools and students away because there just wasn't the space for any more participants.
Linnea Van Eman, gifted coordinator at Zarrow International Elementary School, said last year, the first year Zarrow participated, she brought eight students to the competition. This year, that number grew to 20 students.
"It was so much fun. I wouldn't miss it for anything," Van Eman said. "They really have to work together to solve real world problems."
Students from Jenks High School had a bit of an advantage. Those teams have already built and raced a boat in their class. In fact, the teams from Jenks with the best times are the ones who get to participate in the challenge.
Christian Boyd, a junior at Jenks, said her team looked at what other teams had done, both good and bad, and built their boat learning from others' successes and flaws.
"We get to do our own thing. It's not something the teacher tells you how to do," Boyd said.
"I'd rather have something hands-on than a test. You learn it. This isn't actually work, it's a game."
The competition isn't really about winning, Van Eman said, but about students learning what they are capable of.
"They think, engineering, it's something adults do," she said, but the challenge changes that. "One comment from a girl was 'I had no idea engineering could be so fun.' Two of our fifth-grade girls said they want to be engineers now."
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OSU-Tulsa Engineering Design Challenge Results
Traditional boat
(times are given in seconds)
High school time
1: Dove Science Academy Team 5 9
2: Jenks Team 1 16
Middle School time
1: Discovery School of Tulsa Team 1 10.6
2: Dove Science Academy Team 1 11.4
3: Memorial Team 1 15.3
4: Hale Team 1 15.5
5: Edison Team 1 24.8
Elementary School time
1: Zarrow Team 1 10.4
2: Jenks East Team 3 20
3: Jenks East Team 1 25.3
Air boat
(times are given in seconds)
High School time
1: Mingo Valley Christian School Team 1 6.6
2: Jenks Team 2 8.7
3: Jenks Team 4 9.8
4: Memorial Team 1 11.4
5: Memorial Team 2 15.3
Middle School time
1: Union Team 1 9.8
2: Victory Christian School Team 1 12
3: Union Focus Team 1 12.6
4: Hale Team 2 17
5: Union Team 2 22.2
Elementary School time
1: Zarrow Team 2 8.5
2: Zarrow Team 3 8.7
3: Zarrow Team 4 10.7
4: Zarrow Team 5 11.1
5: Jenks East Team 2 14.4
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