Westfield Technical High School STEM Projects in Action

kristielAll Topics, fischertechnik, STEM Education

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high school STEM projectsAs many of our regular blog readers know, over the past year we’ve followed the progress of students at Westfield Vocational Technical High School (located in Westfield, MA) as they work through the fischertechnik STEM Lab Program.  This fall, a new group of students was introduced to the lab program. We wanted take a peek at how they’re doing, and share some of their work as they encounter a few early exercises in the curriculum.

Benefits of High School STEM Projects

One of the first sections the students work through involves sketching and documentation. As you may recall, the fischertechnik STEM Lab Program is built around the concept of “project based learning“. Each unit of the curriculum provides a different design challenge. Students – working together in small groups – assume a real-world role, while piecing together various concepts they’ve learned and discussed in class. These exercises also encourage a healthy amount of research, creativity and trial and error. In this design unit, the students were asked to assume the role of a fischertechnik designer and design a unique, new part. Discover how some of them answered this challenge in the two examples below:

In the first video, the students created a reservoir for holding air by designing the fischertechnik Compressor. This part actually did exist several years ago, unbeknownst to the students.

In the second video, the students designed a simple hand crank generator for powering fischertechnik’s electronic components.

What’s next in the fischertechnik STEM Lab?

The next unit the Westfield Vocational Technical High School students will tackle in the curriculum focuses on mechanical systems. Students will be provided with instructions on how to build a simple, yet functional, car-jack using fischertechnik Education. The corresponding challenge presented in this unit is to create a simple, effective braking system – such as you would find on a racing bike. We are excited to see the many different ways these students are solving these challenges and look forward to sharing more of their videos and photos as the year progresses.

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