SPRING LAKE PARK, Minn. – (March 31, 2016) – They may not be Superman but eighth graders at Westwood Middle School found a way to fly. In this STEM class students started with a prototype hoverboard which wouldn’t work and had to make adjustments until they found success, some more than others. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics and all those tools were applied in this project.
“Well first we had to make a plan or a drawing of what we were going to do. Then we had to create a ground effects skirt,” said student Tanner Payne. That’s when Payne and his group had to start brainstorming and experimenting. “This is a donut for the ground effects skirt which helps it hover and these holes help air release. This fills up with air, the roles release and it makes a vacuum so it stays floating instead of just air releasing out and that’s how it hovers,” said Payne. The goal of STEM class is to develop critical thinking skills through hands on project based learning. This teacher knew exactly how to get the students to that goal.
“I did not let them know exactly how big to make the holes for the air pressure. Their is a balance between the air pressure and the ground effects skirt and the air pressure coming out. You have to much in either one and it won’t fly or it will sink. They had to figure out the size of the holes to balance out the air pressure between the center area and the ground effects skirt,” said STEM teacher Daniel Kretchmar. There are plenty of distractions to keep students from finding learning as a fun experience, but building hovercrafts kept their minds active on class.
“They were all engaged. To me that’s what makes STEM class interesting, that’s what makes it a worthwhile class. They all walk in here and they want to be in here. They all want to be trying it, they all want to be flying it, they all want to try building it, they all want to try doing this. To them half the time I’ll give them an assignment and they think it’s play not learning and oh no it turned out it was a learning experience at the same time and they didn’t even notice,” said Kretchmar. “It’s fun because it’s weird feeling that moving while you’re standing on it because it’s kind of bouncy,” said Payne.
Even real world applicators were learned. Truth is floating a few centimeters off the ground is a neat idea, but the process to get there is how these students will gain skills they will remember forever. “I live for this, this is why I am a teacher, this is the most exciting part about teaching STEM. They get to work with real world applications. Hovercrafts are real things. They have all sorts of practical applications. They can be used for palette trucks instead of using those wheel things. A hovercraft can go over almost any surface so this is a real world problem all they learned how to solve and work on,” said Kretchmar.
