Engineering Challenge Day was held at LNMS on March 5. Thanks to Phibro-Tech, a local engineering company who sponsored the event, all LNMS students had the chance to practice their STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) skills. Trash4Teaching bought the Ultimate Recycling Machine Challenge to LNMS. Our students took part in this hands-on engineering challenge to design and build a machine that was able to transport a plastic bottle into a recycle bin. Students were divided into teams of 6 and given 30 minutes to design, create, test and redesign their machines. Zip-lines, roller coasters and catapults were among the design ideas used to meet the challenge. During the build phase teams had access to technical assistants provided by Phibro-Tech engineers and employees - David Clark, David Thaete, Amanda Trujillo, Mike Meves, Rico Cordura, and Laurie Lanham. At the end of the challenge students were able to share their contraptions and see what other teams had dreamed up.
In addition to LNMS 7th and 8th graders, we invited the 6th graders from Aeolian, Nelson, and Rancho to join us for this event.