The 2008-2009 NFPA Fluid Power Challenge was held at the Milwaukee School of Engineering on November 14, 2008, Workshop Day, and December 12, 2008, Challenge Day. At the Workshop Day, twenty teams from throughout Wisconsin and northern Illinois learned about fluid power and built a pneumatic lifter. Participating schools included:
Overall
Champion
Starbuck Middle School – Team A
Racine, WI
Portfolio
Champion
Starbuck Middle School – Team B
Racine, WI
Design Champion
Hmong American Peace Academy
Milwaukee, WI
Teamwork
Champion
Heineman Middle School
Algonquin, IL
Team
Challenge Champion
Fritsche Middle School – Team A
Milwaukee, WI
Fritsche Middle School, Milwaukee, WI
Hartford University School, Milwaukee, WI
Heineman Middle School, Algonquin, IL
Hmong American Peace Academy, Milwaukee, WI
Luxemburg-Casco Middle School, Luxemburg, WI
Marlowe Middle School, Lake in the Hills, IL
New Berlin Eisenhower Middle School, New Berlin, WI
Starbuck Middle School, Racine, WI
Vieau Middle School, Milwaukee, WI
The weeks between the Workshop Day and Challenge Day, the teams were busy at work designing, building and testing their fluid power prototypes. Everyone, teachers and students, were very excited and enthusiastic about the program:
A teacher said her students wanted to get right to work after the workshop, but she told them she couldn’t because she had a plumber coming at 5:00 that evening. They then told her they would meet her, first thing the next morning, Saturday.
One teacher has named her classroom “the construction zone”.
Another teacher described his student team members as being treated like rock or sports stars. The students are stopped in the hallway and asked about the project and the prototypes. These students have even started to give “spontaneous” presentations in class about the program and their progress!
A student commented to the teacher that he wasn’t sure if his team was going to win, but it didn’t matter because they were having so much fun.
On the Challenge Day, the teams again met at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. That morning, while the teachers were invited to tour Challenge sponsor, The Oilgear Co., the students constructed their fluid power devices. The nineteen remaining teams competed to solve a fluid power challenge by designing and constructing a mechanism that used hydraulics technology to pick a canister from one platform, rotate, and place it on another platform. The teams were evaluated on the number of pick-and-place cycles their machine completed as well as a review of each team’s design, portfolio and teamwork. Each team had a very unique and creative design.
Two teams from Fritsche Middle School, Team A and Team C, each moved eleven canisters in the 2-minute Challenge. These two teams then competed in a 1-minute face off to determine the Team Challenge Champion. Special recognition was also given to Starbuck Team D and the Hmong American Peace Academy for coming in 2nd and 3rd place overall respectively.
Trophies were awarded to:
Starbuck Middle School – Team A:
Overall Champion
Starbuck Middle School – Team B: Portfolio Champion
Hmong American Peace Academy: Design Champion
Heineman Middle School:
Teamwork Champion
Fritsche Middle School – Team A: Team Challenge Champion
Everyone, teachers, students, parents, and NFPA member company sponsors were excited and enthusiastic about the program. Teacher comments from the feed back form included:
“Kids loved it. Their attention has never been this focused in class!”
Scott Jex,
Hmong American Peace Academy
“Real world experience. Engineering at it’s best.”
Joe Kempke,
Luxemburg-Casco Middle School
“WOW! Critical thinking and problem solving skills help in everyday life & the kids rose to the challenge.”
Elaine Lorinczi,
Marlowe Middle School
Student comments about the Challenge included, “exciting,” “very fun,” “educational,” “really cool” and “opening doors for me to learn more.” One student said he would recommend the Challenge to any 7th grader he knew “so they can have the same fun I did today (Challenge Day).”
A parent who attended the program said it was “perfect. The teams (and students) were totally focused.”
The NFPA Fluid Power Challenge provides Middle School students with information about fluid power technology and hands-on experience building a fluid power mechanism with real world applicability. Plans are underway for an expansion of the program next year to two sites in Milwaukee and possibly in one or two surrounding states.
Thank you to the Canadian Fluid Power Association and the following businesses for their support of
the December 2008 Challenge.
To learn more about the Challenge, please contact
Carrie Tatman Schwartz, Program Manager at ctschwartz@nfpa.com
or (414) 778-3347.
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
and the following businesses for their support of
the December 2008 Challenge.
