Project Lead the Way held at BCC

Project Lead the Way held at BCC
Teri Stein

Nathan Keim, left, a junior, and sophomores Alex Schott and Aiden Liggett, students at Strasburg High School, with their Principals of Engineering project.

                        

The next big invention will most likely come from Project Lead the Way. The 14th annual event was held recently at Buckeye Career Center in New Philadelphia. The event is set up like a science fair with students showcasing their best work in a variety of projects.

Schools participating were Conotton Valley, Indian Valley, Tusky Valley, Buckeye Career Center, New Philadelphia, Dover and Strasburg.

There was no shortage of projects on display at the event, with one community member saying he comes to the event every year because it is so interesting.

Improving on standard items used every day was the focus for many projects. In one project Caiden Ziegert, a freshman at Dover High School, saw the frustrations of carrying screwdriver bits around in a box where they can fall out and get lost. Using a 3-D printer, Ziegert made several designs for a screwdriver that held extra bits organized in the handle.

Ziegert made several prototypes before he settled on one that would work best. Things he had to consider were the width of the handle and it had to be wide enough to hold the extra bits but small enough that it still fit comfortably in one's hand. He used the same material as plastic soda bottles so the handle would be strong.

“My final design can hold 12 bits and 13 if you count the one on the end,” Ziegert said.

There are always more problems to solve though. “It’s handy. Just don’t keep it in a hot car. It doesn't have a very high melting point,” Ziegert said.

Riley Sites of Tusky Valley High School spoke about her project with Ella McElwee on Surviving the Extremes.

“We were challenged with finding a way to help someone survive in an extreme environment. So we picked the desert. There are so many dangerous animals in the desert, especially the one that we picked. It was the rattlesnake,” Sites said.

People who’ve been bit by the snakes require immediate first aid to prevent the venom from spreading throughout their body.

“Our invention has two needles that go directly into the bite. They're adjustable in width, so for any-size bite, and it’s portable,” Sites said. “And it comes in a kit that you can like easily carry with you to the desert.”

The rattlesnake bite kit wasn’t their only idea.

“It took us a while to brainstorm ideas. We went through quite a few to narrow it down to this one,” Sites said.

One of the questions the judges asked Sites was who the best group would be to purchase the item. Sites answered the product might interest tourists. A judge suggested it would benefit farmers and forest rangers too.

During judging, Sites also discussed the main body systems that are affected if the venom gets into your body.

“If it spreads too far through your circulatory system, it can start causing hallucinations. Or if it reaches your heart, everything in your body sort of shuts down. So that's what we're trying to prevent from happening,” Sites said.

Sites and McElwee’s project earned them second place in the Human Body Sciences category.

Other prize winners from the PLTW competition were Evan Davis, Nik Vandine and Reid Heller from Indian Valley Middle School. They overcame a variety of issues including parts that came off, loose bolts or programming that wasn’t right. The project took about two months to complete. They had previously taken a fourth-place win at a competition in Marion in Hockey Bot.

In each competition they learned something new to make their project work better. For their efforts they earned third place for Hockey Bot in the Design and Modeling for 7th Grade competition at BCC.

Kaylie Menefee of Indian Valley Middle School showed her maze robot project and discussed the restrictions.

“It couldn't be bigger than 7-by-7-by-7 inches, and you can't use a remote control. It gets three runs to try to complete the maze and can't be longer than five minutes,” Menefee said.

The robot also should navigate the maze in as fast a time as possible. She put in a couple of days a week for two months to complete.

Strasburg students Nathan Keim, a junior, and Aiden "A.J." Liggett and Alex Schott, both sophomores, were among the many students competing with a Principles of Engineering project.

“When we started this project, we just had to generate concepts. The most difficult thing was actually deciding how we're going to move the arm. And if we wanted to move the scoop with the arm, we started on a three-gear system where it wrapped around the top of the robot,” Liggett said. “And we tried that, which didn't move the scoop because the problem was the chain would skip over the gear. So by the ingenuity of our genius teacher, Mr. Rauckhorst, he came up with a one-gear solution, which was much easier, simpler to just scoop the ball straight up, and then we modified the scoop to fix for that.”

The group worked for 2 1/2 to three months to complete the project.

The Launch program is for students pre-k to fifth grade. Participating in the program this year were Dover fourth-grade students Nathan Beachy, Rylee Hall, Olive Herman, Henry Maxwell, Lincoln McIlvaine, Anson Miller and Jamey Wolfe in the project Changes to the Earth. Fifth-grade Dover students competing were Max Cooley, Addy Espenschied, Grace Gartrell, Aubrie Hindman, Keppler Ireland, Anna Klaserner, Abby Lint and Hudson Ott in the Start Your Engines project. Fifth-graders from Tusky Valley participating were T.J. Goss, Tyus Lieser and Layne Weisen.

Many students were recognized for their efforts by Steve Stokey of Allied Machine, one of the many supporters of PLTW, in the cafeteria after judging. Awards were given to the following students and their projects:

GTT6 DM – Design and Modeling for sixth grade

Emily Flood, Dover, puzzle cube; Bryce Beckley, Dover, puzzle cube; and Carter Brown, IV, Rescue Robot.

GTT7 DM – Design and Modeling for seventh grade

Alec Bassett, Jacob Thompson, Dover, puzzle cube; Dean Nichols, Jacob Tritt, TV, shipping container house; and Evan Davis, Nik Vandine, Reid Heller, IV, Hockey Bot.

GTT7 AR – Automation and Robotics for eighth grade

Madilyn Marshall, Mallory Norman, Jocelyn Steele, Dover, SumoBot Allen; Aubrey Elliot, Loretta Johnson, Breanna Latella, Alexie Menefee and Abby Simmerman, IV, Mars Rover; and Haylie Menefee, IV, Maze Bot.

Computer Integrated Manufacturing

All winners are in grade 12.

Charity Ramser and Trevor Warren, TV, DUO Pod 2; David Leshon, Charity Ramser, Robert Ritchie, Trevor Warren and Branden Wilson, TV, EZ Inventory; and Matthew Dummermuth, Lochlan Fannin, Matthew Howell, Kotajarvi Jackson, Isaac Joerg, Nolan Kellicker, Ryan Nixon, Daniel Pilcher, Mason Stoldt and Noah Tristano, Dover, guitar project.

Computer Science Essentials

Lucas Bair, Aaron Lane and Gage Wagoner, all grade 9, and Roman Wires, grade 10, IV, Outbreak game; Kaylen Donohoe, grade 9, IV; and Blake Addy and Landon Mishler, both grade 9.

Computer Science Principles

Skyler Byers, grade 11, IV, color matching game; Moss Alford, grade 11, IV, car trivia hangman; and Matthew Robinson, grade 12, IV, little adventure game.

Digital Electronics

Austin Norris, Logan Postlewait, Kathryn Secoy and Beau Wolf, all grade 11, TV, Driven; James Cooper, Braden Dotts and Brian Hernandez, all grade 11, soil testing moisture detector; and Sam Hitchcock and Skye Wissman, both grade 12, BCC, MAGIC 8.

Human Body Systems

Camberlee Perkowski and Hannah Spicer, both grade 10, TV, Surviving the Extremes - 6; Ella McElwee and Riley Sites, both grade 10, Surviving the Extremes - 1; and Lauren Eberly and Reed Maloon, both grade 10, TV, Surviving the Extremes - 2.

Introduction to Engineering Design

Libby Beardmore and Emily Hathaway, both grade 9, and Lucas Plauger, grade 8, TV, Pill-A-Vator; Piper Smith, grade 11, and Skye Wissman, grade 12, BCC, Rescue Robot; and Ali Patterson, Michayela Plants and Bryley Swaldo, all grade 9, IV, Name Tag Lanyard.

Principles of Biomedical Science

Courtney Boyd, Cayden Gadfield and Tyra Hampton, all grade 11, TV, Mobile Medical Facility - 8; Katelin Hostetler-Gibson and Kylie Weiland, both grade 11, TV, Mobile Medical Facility - 9; and Brynn Goedel and Kaleigh Norris, grade 9, Ashley Price, grade 12, Emily Schuman, grade 10, TV, Mobile Medical Facility - 6.

Principles of Engineering

Cassie Lazette, Chris Lorenz and Rylee Milburn, all grade 10, CV, VEX Robotics; Logan Rotruck, grade 11, and Atticus Stewart, grade 9, CV, VEX Robotics; and Cole Clements, Jake Kapper, Chesney Logan and Rileigh Mosley, all grade 10, TV, VEX Robotics Team - 2.


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