Technology is more than just typing in the computer lab,
students at Paradise Valley Elementary are finding out as they
watch presentations from their fellow students, who recently
participated in the 16th annual Tech Challenge.
Technology is more than just typing in the computer lab, students at Paradise Valley Elementary are finding out as they watch presentations from their fellow students, who recently participated in the 16th annual Tech Challenge.
This is the second year Paradise Valley teams have participated in the event, which is sponsored by the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose.
“We’re developing a tradition of technology,” said Paradise Valley Principal James Hamilton. “These competitions are something we would like to encourage. They allow the students to put their knowledge to use and to think in different ways.”
Approximately 600 participants competed in this year’s Challenge in three grade levels: 5-6th grade, 7-8th grade and 9-12th grade categories.
“The Pythons” of Paradise Valley, better known as Anjana Devaraj, Joshua Yip, Chris Kyser and Scott Mink, won a prize in the 5-6th grade category for building the “Most Autonomous Device.”
The “Aliens,” or Daniel Doscher, James Follett, Kenny Lee, Krista Cavanaugh and Mitchell Schenkelberg, won the 3rd prize in the ‘Design Methodology Review’ category for their team journal.
“We’re proud of our teams when they participate,” said Hamilton. “Naturally, we’re excited when they receive awards.”
For this year’s challenge, the theme was ‘Canopy Climb’: An international team with NASA engineers and a group of Brazilian scientists are examining the effects of deforestation on the Amazon rainforests, and one of their aims is to collect leaves from the rich canopy hovering above 150 feet from the forest floor.
“The main goal of the challenge was for the students to use their imagination to build a device that can climb up the rainforest canopy and obtain a leaf sample for the scientists,” said parent Raman Kumani. “The device should also be small enough to enter the canopy without being intrusive to the plant and animal life of the rainforest”.
With this in mind, teams composed of two to six members were charged with designing, building and operating a device that can climb up, in a simulated situation, to a 15 1/2 foot long rope (jungle vine) and reach the top to retrieve a ping pong ball (tropical leaf sample). The device must then descend the rope safely with the ball.
Teams were only given three minutes for the “leaf” recovery operation, so efficiency of motion was important.
While working on their designs – for over a month – the teams were required to document their work, the process of designing, building, testing, experimentation, rebuilding and everything involved in the whole process.
These journals were submitted during the competition itself and were judged. Also during the competition, the teams were asked questions by a panel of judges and team posters were evaluated before the actual testing of the device.
The Tech Challenge strives to encourage challenges, imagination, and creativity. For more information on this year’s competition, list of winners or future competitions visit www.techmuseum.org
