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Uxbridge Students Win Engineering Challenge
Danvers and Uxbridge Students Win Engineering Challenge
Recycling Control Systems Challenge Connects Students and STEM Professionals through Feedback from MITRE employees
[Boston, MA, June 7, 2019] Congratulations to students from Danvers and Uxbridge High Schools for being selected as winners in a recycling control systems Online Industry Challenge for Project Lead The Way (PLTW) students, organized by Mass STEM Hub, a program of the One8 Foundation.
In the PLTW Principles of Engineering course, high school students learn about mechanisms, strength of structures, and automation. In their unit about control systems, they apply what they learned to design, model, and test a device to separate recyclable materials combining VEX materials with control and 3D modeling software.
Through Online Industry Challenges, which Mass STEM Hub organizes throughout the year, students submit their work from PLTW classes to receive feedback from engineers and computer scientists. For this challenge in particular, students submitted work to experts at The MITRE Corporation, and received feedback on their prototype sketches and designs, design process flow diagrams, and programming code.
“At MITRE, we are deeply committed to advancing STEM education in the United States which will help our nation continue to be innovative and maintain global competitiveness,” said Adrienne Thomas-Loftin, Head of Inclusion and Diversity at MITRE. “Our judges were very impressed with the way students demonstrated their strong grasp of fundamental engineering concepts – concepts that are often applied here at MITRE. The judges enjoyed providing feedback that would push the students to think beyond their current project, similar to the way engineers think about projects daily.”
The STEM professionals selected two winning teams. The overall challenge winner is a team from Danvers High School, selected for the thorough and creative way they approached the sorting problem through the development of a conveyor belt, their detailed design, well thought out flow diagram and clear explanation of their iterative thought process. The innovation award winner is a team from Uxbridge High School, selected for innovative approach to sorting and demonstrated consideration for future iterations and improvement.
"We could not be prouder of our programs, the teachers, and, most importantly, the students," said Uxbridge High School Principal Michael Rubin. "The work being done to ensure our students the opportunity to learn in such authentic ways is really quite awesome, and we are thrilled that our students, no matter their success on the challenges, get the opportunity to receive feedback from industry professionals."
In today’s rapidly changing world, students need to learn to be adaptive, critical thinkers ready to solve complex problems and clearly communicate solutions. Mass STEM Hub partners with innovative organizations such as MITRE to create opportunities for students to showcase their work and connect with industry professionals.
“We are thrilled with our partnership with MITRE, through which we were able to connect students and STEM professionals,” stated Andreina Parisi-Amon, Director of Partnerships for Mass STEM Hub. “It was so energizing to hear the engineers and computer scientists discussing the students’ projects, drawing parallels to their own work, and providing real world feedback. We’re excited to continue building opportunities like this for students.”
- Mass STEM Hub is a program of the One8 Foundation and its mission is to provide schools will access to and support for the next level of STEM education that engages students and prepares them to succeed in a rapidly changing, high tech world. Mass STEM Hub has helped scale Project Lead The Way’s K-12 curriculum in engineering, computer science and biomedical science to over 35,000 students in Massachusetts enabling students to learn how to take theory to practice with real world problem solving. mass-stemhub.org
### If you would like more information about this topic, please email aparisiamon@mass-stemhub.org