Originally published on 1/31/2020
On January 27, Rodeo Palms Jr. High STEM Academy students became engineers! These talented 6th grade students designed and built a carnival ride and presented their designs to 1st and 2nd graders from the Alvin ISD WINGS Academy.
The project began earlier this month when the students were tasked with designing and building a ride using an Engineering Construction Kit. Their design needed to include the following:
- A push button to start the ride
- The ride needed to run for 1 minute and 30 seconds and then stop
- A warning sound emitted when the ride is about to start
- A warning sound emitted when the ride is about to stop
The students worked in groups of 4 or 5 and took on jobs such as programmer, designer, builder, graphic designer, and writer. The students wrote a survey to send to the WINGS Academy students. The WINGS students completed the survey based on their likes/dislikes. The STEM teams used the data collected from those surveys to design their ride. The most popular themes chosen were Pokémon, Disney, and Harry Potter.
After the ride/program was completed, the kids worked on their displays and presentations. Their goal was to make it appealing to draw the kids in mimicking a real amusement park.
“My favorite part of this project was the problem solving. Our model kept tipping over and we had to trial and error it so many times,” shared 6th grade student Arhan Ahuja.
This technology-based science lesson is just one of many STEM Academy students take part in. The Alvin ISD STEM Academy is a school within a school model meeting the needs of the district’s highly gifted population. Located at Rodeo Palms Jr. High, the STEM Academy focuses on problem solving, discovery, creativity, exploratory learning, teamwork, leadership skills, and communication skills while providing the depth and complexity needed to meet the cognitive needs of the highly gifted student.