Story and photos by Cecilia Lykins ’29
Chaos filled the room. There was laughter, excitement, and joy. People were standing on tables, water was everywhere, and everyone was running around. Engineering Challenges was a Winter Term class led by Dr. Kristine Sontheimer, Middle School Science Teacher, who teaches students how to use their imagination and work through a new engineering challenge each day. Each day she gives the students a problem, and then they fill them out in their notebooks, where they write all of their design ideas. They have to develop the design obstacle in their book and then get it approved by Dr. Sonti.
On the first day of the class, the students executed a marshmallow launch and they used fifteen popsicle sticks, ten rubber bands, and one spoon. The goal was to launch the marshmallow a meter in the air.
The second challenge that the students undertook was the paper towers, and they were provided with thirty pieces of paper and unlimited pieces of tape. Then, the students had to build the tallest tower holding a pound of cornstarch. Betsy Branca ’31 said, “The tower was a great test of our engineering skills and our teammate skills!”
The third challenge that the students completed was constructing tinfoil boats and seeing how many mini blocks they could hold in the water. The mini blocks symbolized people and the ship had to withstand a rough “storm” to see whose boat was the strongest. Nora Lurk ’32 said, “In this class, we worked on learning how to build a boat that wouldn’t sink with 70 blocks in it, and that was challenging for my group to do, but we worked through it!”
On the fourth and fifth days, the students accomplished an egg drop challenge, in which the students had a certain amount of money to spend on supplies at the class store to prevent their eggs from breaking in the fall.
The final challenge that the engineers completed was to create their roller coaster. During this obstacle, the students had three pipe insulation tubes, three feet of masking tape, and one marble to roll down the roller coaster. To complete the challenge, the engineers have to build the roller coaster against a wall, and the goal is to make the most engaging and fun roller coaster to get the most points.
Several students throughout this course shared what they thought about it. Becky Brauer ’31 shared, “During our Winter Term class, we learned how to create, test, and improve the items Dr. Sonti gave us.” Next, Jack Corcoran ’31 explained, “In this class, we did a bunch of fun design challenges to see who could get the most points at the end.” Finally, Dominic Muccigrosso ’32 stated that he “enjoyed hanging out with my friends, all of the challenges, and how the challenges worked!”