Science Club Engineers Enthusiasm
By: Sadie Peterson
Students in grades five through eight are getting a new enrichment experience this year. The Science Club is an opportunity for students to use real-life problem solving skills in the areas of engineering, technology and science. St. John the Evangelist students will be entering some of the area’s most challenging competitions and putting their minds to the test.
Science is not just the memorization of a set of facts that will be irrelevant in ten years. Science is the process of asking questions and finding answers. Science skills are relevant in any field and provide the foundation for creative problem solving.
This club is student driven. As the teacher running Science Club, I act more as a coach and guide than an instructor. My job is to give students the chance to challenge themselves. I don’t put them into groups and give them a set of instructions. Instead, I simply make sure that the rules of the competition are being followed and intervene only when students need my guidance.
The first competition, called Final Frontiers, was recently held on November 21st at Wootton High School. Some of the engineering challenges our students have been working on include a car that is powered by air, a device that will shoot a golf ball two meters, a tower that can hold a stack of quarters made only of copy paper and masking tape and a bridge that can hold the weight of a brick. Students discovered quickly that these tasks are not as easy as they seem.
Our next adventure is the Baltimore Museum of Industry engineering challenge. Students will have the opportunity to build a wind turbine, a hover craft, a storybook amusement park ride or a cargo airplane.
Whether we win any prizes or not, I am happy to be a part of something that
gets students excited and shows them the meaning of real science in action.
