For the first time in its six-year history, the Wheeler STEAM Symposium invited elementary school students to take part in its wide-ranging collection of class and laboratory projects.
Students from many Wheeler feeder schools toured the Wildcat Arena Wednesday morning to learn from their high school counterparts, who were more than happy to explain how they’ve blending high-level science and engineering knowledge with concepts from the creative arts.
For the last three years, the STEAM concept has been on display at the symposium, and earlier this school year Wheeler became the first high school in the state to receive official STEAM certification from the Georgia Department of Education.
Wheeler junior Ryan Davis was literally wearing his project, a lit multi-colored strap he calls Reactive LED Hoodie. He can change the colors and “make it a rainbow,” said Davis, who also has set the project to music streaming through a nearby laptop.
“I enjoy doing electronics for fun and am interested in wearable technology,” he said, as the device changed from yellow to green to blue to red and other colors.
Another Wheeler junior, Abigail Ochal, said her engineering class semester project, 3D Printing Plastic Filament Extruder, is designed to extract recyclable plastics from 3D printing materials. She couldn’t turn on the device with a big crowd around, however, since temperatures flare up in excess of 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, Ochal demonstrated on her laptop how the plastic pellets stream out.
More familiar robotics contraptions were also tooling around on the gym floor, and Wheeler’s F1 in Schools students drew a big crowd with their speed demonstrations down a 16-meter aluminum track.
Wheeler junior Poojan Mehta, who’s part of the AeroFlow Racing team, said recent test runs have averaged around 1.1 seconds. But while we watched, we saw what he said was the best time they’ve seen thus far, 0.996 seconds. He said the cars are designed with computer technology, and the runs are examined there as well for insights as to how to make them run even faster.
In previous years, the Wheeler STEAM Symposium was held at night, and initially it featured the work of students within the Wheeler Magnet School.
Now, says assistant principal Cheryl Crooks, head of the magnet school and Wheeler STEAM Symposium, the event has expanded to the entire school body, with outreach to students and lower school levels.
“Let’s make it inclusive, and let’s invite everybody from the school,” she said. STEAM, Crooks added, can be for “every student, every teacher and at every level.”
Elementary students also were recognized for their projects, another first for the symposium.
“Our students looked like they enjoyed it more” seeing their visitors react to their projects, Crooks said. “It really validates what they’re doing.”
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