Locals schools build bridges for Range Resources, IU1 STEM Challenge
Courtesy of Nina Pompeani
Canon-McMillan High School’s engineering team presented an impressive bridge to a panel of six judges during the first Range Resources STEM Challenge last week. The team took second place for Most Innovative/Creative bridge design.
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Elijah Twele, center left, celebrates as the bridge he and his teammates constructed maxes out at 230 pounds. The Laurel Highlands team comprised of Twele; Jacob Valente, and Bridget and Belle Distelrath won first place overall for the middle school category.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Dustin Bradick, water resources supervisor for Range, adds weight to Laurel Highlands Team 4’s bridge. The sixth-grade team, comprised of Belle and Bridget Distelrath, Elijah Twele and Jacob Valente, won first place for best middle school bridge.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Chartiers-Houston Team 2 watches nervously as Range Resource’s Dustin Bradick adds weight to their Popsicle stick bridge. Zaylee Fonner, far left, Leah Perchinsky, Gracie Dorish, Haley Margerum and Acelyn Weiss said the STEM challenge helped them build bridges together both literally and figuratively.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
A Range Resource employee adds weight to the colorful bridge crafted by Bentworth eighth-graders Lauren Jurovcik, Jesse Laskey, Emma Lusk, Brina Orsatti and Cassidy Shaw. Both Bentworth teams’ bridges easily supported 230 pounds of weight.
Students from 13 schools in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties bridged the gap between classroom learning and real- world application at the STEM Challenge, hosted jointly by Range Resources and Intermediate Unit 1 on Thursday.
“This has been an opportunity for them to connect with people that are in the field,” said Sarah D’Urzo, IU1 coordinator for innovation and design, who helped plan the event. “To be able to see that the engineering, science, math, the creativity – everything that goes into it is something that they’re learning right now that can be applied to a real-world situation. The students are like, ‘Yes, I’m building a bridge, but this bridge could be used.'”
Projects presented to a panel of judges by both middle school and high school students had real-world applications. Teams of no more than five high schoolers were challenged to build a 48-inch long bridge that could hold 75 pounds or more for at least three minutes.
While high-schoolers explained their designs and demonstrated their craftsmanship in a conference room upstairs, middle school students presented smaller-scale infrastructure projects inside the first-floor auditorium.
Grades five through eight were tasked with brainstorming, designing and building a bridge at least 14 inches long using 200 or fewer Popsicle sticks and their glue of choice.
No additional materials were allowed (though a handful of groups prettified their bridges with hot glue or marker designs). Bridges were required to hold at least 10 pounds of weight for one minute.
If the bridge could handle the weight, Range Resources employees added additional weighted plates, and judges added performance points to that team’s score.
“The work exceeded my expectations,” said Christina Kramer, community relations specialist at Range, who planned the STEM challenge with D’Urzo and Justin Welker, water operations manager at Range. “Who knew popsicle sticks could hold up to 240 pounds?”
Nine of the 13 middle school teams constructed bridges that held 230 pounds, including Laurel Highlands Team 4, which was awarded first place overall for middle school.
“I was hoping I could get a team of five,” said math teacher Zach Hixson. “We ended up with 20 kids wanting to participate.”
Hixson said those 20 students competed for a spot on one of four middle school teams. The students in attendance at the STEM Challenge were thrilled to show off their design and put their popsicle bridge to the test.
“I think right now, with the attention of the failure of the bridges, I think that what they’re doing is amazing compared to how this can be related to what’s actually happening,” said Laurel Highlands technology education teacher Shaun Valente. “It’s an eye-opener, being able to think about applying what they’re doing. That’s the cool thing about hands-on: we apply what we’re (teaching).”
Steve Whitfield, a seventh-grade science teacher at Chartiers-Houston, said the STEM Challenge was just as rewarding for him as it was for his students.
“It was just me talking about the big ideas. I pretty much turned them loose to do their own research,” Whitfield said. “It was really nice to be able to give them the freedom. They were able to go … totally above and beyond what the goal for the project was.”
One Chartiers-Houston bridge held 230 pounds, while the other supported 100 pounds – 10 times more than the challenge required.
For the Chartiers-Houston group whose bridge held 100 pounds, exceeding expectations was not the best part of the challenge.
“The best part of this was that we got to hang out with each other a lot. We got to work together and learn things from each other,” said Leah Perchinsky, a seventh-grader.
Not only did students immerse themselves in the study of teamwork, bridge design, prototyping and follow-through, but competitors also learned public speaking skills.
“One of my biggest things is getting the kids to do public presentations. Speaking in front of peers, Range employees, other teachers, that really does a lot for their careers later in life,” said Welker, adding that some of the students who presented may one day work for Range.
“A lot of these kids are way smarter than we were at this age,” he laughed. “The amount of weight the bridges could hold! We installed about 80 miles of temporary pipe last year. We use these bridges. It’s something that we do every day. To incorporate that engineering aspect into the STEM program … was kind of the driver (for the challenge).
Angela Cranston, Bentworth middle school STEAM teacher, said the challenge was practical and helped her students understand how science and math play a role in life after school.
“A lot of them want to go into engineering. They see what careers in STEM are out there,” she said, adding that meeting Range employees was a great opportunity.