Each month, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School students are given the opportunity to compete in an engineering challenge. The goal of the challenge, according to school officials, is to give students an opportunity to experience the work process of engineering a design challenge, and to collaborate with one another to get the job done well, in a different competition from the yearly science fair.
The students are issued a design challenge at the meet. Working in teams of two or three, they have 45 minutes to complete the task. Then the designs are evaluated to determine the meet winners.
The March challenge was to create a functional broom with limited materials. With their homemade brooms, the teams had to sweep kitty litter from the floor and into a dust pan. The teams had 45 seconds to collect the kitty litter, and the winner was determined by the group that swept the most.
First place went to Tim Roberts, Gordon Moore, and Lee Faraca (7.55 pounds.); second place went to Zach Bresnick, Jared Livingston, and Conner Downing (7.15 pounds); third place went to Andrew Ruimerman, Kevin Montambault, and Willow Wunsch (4.85 pounds).
Almost tied for third with 4.74 pounds were Emma Caron, Arden Bezahler, and Kyra Whalen.
All members of winning teams accumulate points over the season, and are eligible to become grand winners of the challenge at the end of the school year.
