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STEM / Engineering
Page 10 Electronic Edition: www.teachingtodaywi.com
West Bend East and West High Schools Engineering Program
The other classes in the program include one of the highest scores ever was for
Civil Engineering and Architecture, Digital soccer socks meant to hold shin guards in place.
Electronics, and Engineering Design and Named Lock Socks, the students worked with
Development. The program has grown since it local experts and found a company to create a
was implemented in 2007. In the first year, there prototype. other projects have created tools to
were three sections and now there are eight. help prevent rear end collisions, remove snow
Many of the students who take the and ice easily from cars, and a cart to hold
capstone class, Engineering Design and Devel- a large number of laptop computers without
opment, aspire to a career in engineering. The getting the power cords tangled.
class features a year-long project. The students Students at West bend East and West
brainstorm ideas for their project by discuss- high Schools have a wide variety of options to
ing a problem they have in their daily lives explore potential careers during high school,
or their family’s lives. As Johnson says, “We with the Engineering Program providing a
have to define a problem before we can solve a clear view of the many exciting careers in
problem.” Students are paired up through their engineering.
similar interests. Together, they work on the
project, which culminates in a presentation to
judges and families. The highest scores go to the
project groups who document and communicate west-bend.k12.wi.us
their project best.
Nancy Kunkler the high schools is to expose students to as many
The program begins with Introduction to Bringing Space Exploration to the Schools
Communications Manager careers as possible.
West Bend School District
one of the projects for students from West Engineering Design. In this class students use
bend East and West high Schools in the Prin- a problem-solving model to improve existing
ciples of Engineering class is building a marble products and invent new ones. They learn how
sorter. The students, using skills learned in the to use Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Fusion
class, must design, build, program, and test computer-aided design software, which help
a machine that will sort marbles by color into them to analyze potential solutions and commu-
separate bins. Their designs show that they have nicate those solutions to others. Completion of
learned to design and conduct experiments, as this class gives them the foundation for the other
well as to analyze and interpret data. engineering classes.
The students are given three weeks to The East and West high Schools Engineer-
create their marble sorter, which may seem ing Program covers many of the basic concepts
like a long time. however, the students use within the engineering field including careers,
every minute they have available to perfect programming, robotics, automation, drafting, and
their machine. And there are several prototypes, physics. It covers various technology systems
“Failure is encouraged here; we learn from it,” and manufacturing processes and introduces stu-
explains teacher Ryan Johnson. dents to a wide variety of careers in engineering
Principles of Engineering is one of five and technology fields. They will learn firsthand
year-long engineering courses available to stu- how engineers and technicians use math, science,
dents of West bend East and West high Schools. and technology in an engineering problem-solv-
The overall goal of the Engineering Program at ing process to benefit people.
The unique STEM Shuttle has been visit- on engineering, at the upper elementary and
ing schools throughout Wisconsin for the past middle school levels, on board the shuttle.
18 years. A variety of hands-on workstations Constructing an arch and working on the
related to STEM and space exploration, along balancing beam are two more of the favor-
with 2 veteran teachers, greet the 10 students ite workstations on the shuttle. And we can’t
per session who will be participating in the forget to mention the ozone Layer station. In
activities. There can be up to 5 sessions a day. fact, if you ask 5 students what activity they
The STEM Shuttle is designed for enjoyed most, you will likely get 5 different
grades 4 through 8. The hands-on activities answers.
and instructions are adjusted for the different If you have the opportunity to do so,
grades and learning levels. please visit www.stemshuttle.com and take
From day one, the most popular activ- a peek at the students working at the various
ity for the students has been the robotic arm. workstations. You will also find on the home
Students work with their partners to capture page some feedback we have received from
a satellite and return it to the payload bay of teachers and administrators.
the shuttle for repairs. Yes, many of today’s If you are interested in bringing the STEM
students will probably travel in space, or be Shuttle to your school or event, or have ques-
employed to design structures to be built there. tions, please email stemshuttle@gmail.com.
That’s why there is a strong emphasis