| A diverse group of more
than 75 students rose to the challenge of building fluid power mechanisms
in a two-day Fluid Power Challenge contest hosted by the NSF-funded Center
for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP), an Engineering Research
Center based at the University of Minnesota. The 19 teams of 4 students
each, including 46 girls, learned about hydraulics and pneumatics by building
mechanisms with real-world applicability.
The middle school students
and a dozen teachers/mentors came from six schools across Minnesota, including
from the Fond du Lac Tribal Reservation. The Challenge, also sponsored
by the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA), included a workshop in
November 2009 and the contest itself in December. Teams learned about
the world of engineering and fluid power careers by building mechanisms
that could pick an object from one platform, rotate it, and place it on
another platform.
The winning team's mechanism
was chosen by the number of pick-and-place cycles it completed, as well
as a review of each team’s design approach, teamwork, and portfolio.
A video of a winning team’s fluid power mechanism in action can be seen
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYCHpTo_VDs.
Through the Challenges, the
NFPA and the CCEFP hope to encourage students to select more mathematics
and science courses in their high school curricula so as to keep their
options open for technology-based post-secondary studies and to build interest
in engineering as a career choice. |
