Diversity of Solutions Highlight First Ever NFPA Fluid Power Challenge
Judges at the first ever National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) Fluid Power Challenge, held on Friday, May 9th at the Kettle Moraine High School, were pleasantly surprised by the variety of designs students used to solve the challenge. The different and unique designs included some very innovative gripping mechanisms.
The 2008 competition, attended by three gender-balanced teams from three Wisconsin Middle Schools, was won by the team of grade eight students from
Luxemburg-Caso Middle School. Click below to see a short video of the winning team in
action:
The three teams designed and constructed a mechanism that used hydraulics technology to perform a defined task. The students were asked to design and build fluid-power mechanisms for picking an object from one platform, rotating, and placing it on another platform. The teams were evaluated on the number of pick-and-place cycles a school’s machine completes as well as a review of each team’s design approach documented through the use of a design portfolio.
Kettle Moraine Middle School and Hmong American Peace Academy were runners up. Ryan Nihoris, a student on the Kettle Moraine team, said
“This opens up more opportunities for engineering and careers kids aren’t aware of. It’s fun…you develop teamwork and leadership skills and meet kids from different schools.” To see these teams compete, click on these video
links:
The NFPA Fluid Power Challenge is intended to provide Middle School students with information about fluid power technology and hands-on experience building a fluid power mechanism with real world applicability, as well as opening their eyes and those of their teachers to the world of engineering and fluid power careers. At a minimum, NFPA hopes to encourage students to select more mathematics and science courses in their high school curricula to keep their options open for technology-based post-secondary studies.
View
Slide Show
NFPA would like to thank the Canadian Fluid Power Association
 and the following businesses for their support of this year’s Challenge.
The next NFPA Fluid Power Challenge will be held at the Milwaukee School of Engineering on
November
14, 2008 – Workshop Day, and December 12, 2008 – Challenge
Day. To learn more about the Challenge, please contact Tammy Molter, NFPA Workforce Development Program Manager at
tmolter@nfpa.com or (414) 778-3349.
For more information about the Foundation and the programs it supports, contact Eric Lanke at 414-778-3351 or
elanke@nfpa.com
NFPA
Education and Technology Foundation
Developing Tomorrow's Workforce Today
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