STEM Meet @ WHS on November 11

On Tuesday, November 11, Waldwick High School will be hosting a STEM meet with five other high schools.  Students will be presented with a "Design Problem Task" and be given a few hours to brainstorm, design, and create the task.  Students will be using:

Lego pieces
(2) NXT Mindstorms bricks
(6) Touch sensors and cables
Batteries for NXT brick and/or recharging unit
BYOD for any research ( iphones, laptops)

The five high schools involved with this meet are: Bloomfield, Fairlawn, Northern Highlands, Old Tappan and Waldwick.  Each school will have two teams of five students competing.  In addition, each school will bring two extra students who will create two additional exhibition teams comprised of one student from each of the five high schools.

Twelve teams will be competing throughout the day on various tasks which include: Creating a "Design Document," Prototype Development, STEM Connections Document, Testing Prototypes and Final Presentation/Demonstration.  The task focuses on key NJ Core Standards.

Students will be judged using a Rubric (STEM Meet) by eight outside judges.  We are very excited to have an amazing panel of judges who have a wide range of expertise in the fields of STEM.

• Ken Jones - Mechanical Engineer, works with nonprofit organization called "Warfighter Engaged" and goes to Bethesda, Maryland to the Walter Reed VA Hospital.
• Steve Cohen - Coordinator of UAS and Mechatronics Education, BCC.
• Steve Holly - retired engineer, software, IT, R.F. design.
• Drew Zahradka - Stevens Institute, Mechanical Engineer.
• Garrett Joyal- Stevens Institute, studying to become a Mechanical Engineer with focus in Biomedical Engineering.  Spent over a year of internships at Stryker Orthopedics working on developing hip and knee replacements.
• Michelle Easter - Mechanical Engineering Senior at Stevens (graduating May 2015) with Robotics Concentration.  Currently working at Princeton University to design custom mechanisms to automate some of their laser lab experiments.  Completed two summer internships focused on theoretical study of nano and quantum optical systems at Kirtland Air Force Research Laboratory.  Physics and Computer Science background from previous institutions (Hunter College).  K-12 Outreach Committee Chair for Tau Beta Pi National Engineering Honor Society's NJ Alpha Chapter. 
• Al Ziesler - Stevens Institute, Mechanical Engineer.

We also have a very special guest joining us, US Marine SSgt. David Crouse.  More on David and his role in the STEM meet in a future post. 

What is STEM?

STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education. We focus on these areas together not only because the skills and knowledge in each discipline are essential for student success, but also because these fields are deeply intertwined in the real world and in how students learn most effectively. STEM is an interdisciplinary and applied approach that is coupled with hands-on, problem-based learning.

A huge thank you needs to go Mr. Drechsel (Technology Teacher @ WHS) for coordinating this event along with the other coaches:  

Bloomfield - Mike Warholak; Northern Highlands - Al Mugno and Greg Delorenzo; Northern Valley Demarest Old Tappan - Dave Janoz and Steve Maietta