project lead the way

Medway Students Participate in Massachusetts STEM Week Challenge to Eliminate Plastic Ocean Waste

⋅ Client News, School News ⋅ , , , , ⋅ 0 Comments

Medway Public Schools
Armand Pires, Superintendent
45 Holliston St.
Medway, MA 02053

For Immediate Release

Friday, Nov. 15, 2019

Media Contact: Benjamin Paulin
Phone: 781-428-3299
Email: [email protected]

Medway Students Participate in Massachusetts STEM Week Challenge to Eliminate Plastic Ocean Waste

MEDWAY — Superintendent Armand Pires is pleased to share that Medway students recently celebrated STEM Week and participated in the Massachusetts STEM Week Challenge, which tackled real-world zero waste problems.

Teams of Medway students spent the week practicing mini-challenges and working on their zero waste challenge prototypes. Students were challenged by Mass STEM Hub and Project Lead the Way (PLTW), an inquiry-based science and technology curriculum resource, to design a device to help remove microplastics from the ocean to work toward the goal of zero waste.

On Friday, Oct. 25, three teams of Medway students attended the STEM Week Challenge Showcase where they presented their prototype to engineers, state government employees, researchers and college employees.

Matt Montana, grade seven, and Alex Montana, grade eight, built a prototype of a boat that would pull a filter through the water behind it, gathering and filtering microplastics out of the water. They used recycled plastics, such as coffee cups and water bottles, and other materials such as duct tape, coffee filters and a motor-powered propeller to build the prototype.

Victoria Bullard and Brayden Caldwell, both grade seven, used two motorized fans and part of a plastic water bottle to make the product float and move on its own in the water. The team also used metal washers as weights to balance out the prototype. The filter was constructed with a plastic lid and duct tape and was attached to the water bottle with a string to simulate dragging it along the bottom of the ocean.

Claire Mullen, Colleen Layton and Abby White, all in sixth grade, made two products to help pick up microplastics from the surface and floor of the ocean. The first product was designed to be used in storm pipes to catch both microplastics and bigger plastics before they reach the ocean. The second product was designed similar to a moon rover to pick up microplastics from the bottom of the ocean floor.

Approximately 60,000 students from over 400 schools across Massachusetts tackled real-world zero waste problems for Mass STEM Week. All of the materials used during the week were donated by PLTW.

As part of STEM Week, Leslie Knight, grade five through 12 Science, Technology/Engineering and Computer Science Curriculum and Instruction Leader, as well as science, technology and engineering teachers from Burke-Memorial Elementary School, Medway Middle School and Medway High School, attended the annual PLTW conference on Oct. 21 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

At the conference, Medway High School was awarded the High School Achievement Award, which is given to high schools where at least 25 students earned a score on a PLTW end-of-course assessment qualifying them for college credit. The district was also recognized as a 100 percent Access District. This recognizes school districts that offer PLTW classes in every public school in their district. Medway is one of only four districts in the state to receive this distinction.

“We are proud to be a recipient of the High School Achievement Award and of our recognition as a 100 percent Access District,” Superintendent Pires said. “We are happy to be able to provide our students with high-level STEM learning and are proud of them for taking advantage of this special opportunity to brainstorm and present solutions to a real world problem as part of the STEM Week Challenge.”

About Project Lead The Way

Project Lead The Way is an initiative of Mass STEM Hub, an organization providing access to and support for premier STEM programming. Project Lead The Way aims to make STEM part of students’ regular school day. The program offers K-12 curriculum in engineering, computer science, and biomedical science that engages students in problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration and communication.

###

Medway Middle School Students Win Award for Designing Adaptive Children’s Toy

⋅ Client News, School News ⋅ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ⋅ 0 Comments

Medway Public Schools
Armand Pires, Superintendent
45 Holliston St.
Medway, MA 02053

 

For Immediate Release

Friday, June 7, 2019

Media Contact: Benjamin Paulin
Phone: 781-428-3299
Email: [email protected]

Medway Middle School Students Win Award for Designing Adaptive Children’s Toy

MEDWAY –Superintendent Armand Pires is pleased to share that a group of Medway Middle School students won an award this Tuesday for an adaptive toy they designed for the annual Project Lead the Way Children’s Hospital Design Showcase.

Seventh grade students Kelsea Anderson, Lily Bariteau, Ellie Copeland, Caitlin MacNeil, Emma Reardon and Bella Vallieres were among 110 students from 16 Massachusetts schools that attended Mass STEM Hub’s second annual design showcase for Project Lead the Way on Tuesday, June 4, at the Merck Research Laboratories in Boston.

Student groups were challenged to design, test and build an adaptive toy for a child with cerebral palsy for the showcase using their knowledge of the engineering design process, critical measurement and mathematical modeling, computer-aided design and cerebral palsy. Students learned about these concepts in a Design and Modeling Project Lead the Way (PLTW) unit earlier this school year.

At the showcase, students presented their projects to doctors and patients of the cerebral palsy unit of Boston Children’s Hosptial. Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Children’s Hospital CEO Sandra Fenwick also attended the showcase and met with students in the competition.

“This showcase was such a wonderful opportunity for our students to challenge themselves,” Superintendent Pires said. “They created incredibly thoughtful, useful projects, and it’s so exciting to see them using the knowledge they gained this school year to create something meaningful.”

Anderson, Copeland, Reardon and Vallieres were awarded the Practitioners’ Pick award at the showcase, which is given to the project with the most real-world promise at the competition each year. The four students built a multi-functional fidget contraption for the competition, which they designed to support cognitive, sensory and physical therapy for children ages one through 12 with cerebral palsy. The toy features matching, spinning, listening and drawing games for patients to play independently or with an occupational therapist. These features of the toy were designed to engage the cerebral palsy patient’s imagination and senses while strengthening eye-hand coordination.

MacNeil and Bariteau partnered to build a “Toys for Kids Fruit Matcher” toy for the showcase as well, which tasks the patient with matching a soft, squishy “fruit” to a cup the same color as that fruit. MacNeil and Bariteau designed the toy to provide cognitive, physical and sensory therapy to children with cerebral palsy during occupational therapy, and to help patients stretch their finger and hand muscles.

“Project Lead the Way has done a wonderful job of engaging our students and making them excited to learn about STEM topics,” said Medway Middle School Principal Craig Juelis. “This showcase gave students an opportunity to see first-hand how the topics they’re learning about in class can be applied to help others and make an impact in the world, and that’s truly incredible. Congratulations to each of these students on a job well done.”

Project Lead The Way is an initiative of Mass STEM Hub, an organization providing access to and support for premier STEM programming. Project Lead The Way aims to make STEM part of students’ regular school day. The program offers K-12 curriculum in engineering, computer science, and biomedical science that engages students in problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration and communication.

###

Medway’s McGovern Elementary Receives $5,000 Grant to Support New Science Curriculum 

⋅ Client News, School News ⋅ , , , , , , , , , , , , ⋅ 0 Comments

Medway Public Schools
Armand Pires, Superintendent
45 Holliston St.
Medway, MA 02053

 

For Immediate Release

Monday, March 11, 2019

Media Contact: Benjamin Paulin
Phone: 781-428-3299
Email: [email protected]

Medway’s McGovern Elementary Receives $5,000 Grant to Support New Science Curriculum 

MEDWAY — Superintendent Armand Pires is pleased to announce that McGovern Elementary School has been awarded a $5,000 grant to support a new science curriculum at the school.

McGovern Elementary is one of 58 Massachusetts schools that were awarded grants this winter by the Baker-Polito Administration to support science, engineering and biomedical science education through Project Lead the Way.

Project Lead the Way is a nonprofit that provides a variety of STEM related materials and curricula to schools looking to give students hands on, practical learning experiences in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The $5,000 grant will fund the purchase of Project Lead the Way kits for kindergarten and first grade science teachers who will use them in lessons starting in the fall. The school began piloting its first wave of new Project Lead the Way lessons with students last week, and the kits will allow the school to continue to expand its curriculum during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years.

The kits vary depending on the unit students are studying, but provide materials that allow students to use what they learn in class to search for solutions to a problem. For example, one kit includes small plastic trees, among other items, for students to set up for an exercise during a unit called “the changing Earth” where they will explore possible ways to stop erosion.

“This curriculum revolves around inquiry based science, and the students really have to be active participants in making connections, testing hypotheses and finding solutions,” said McGovern Elementary Principal Amy McDonald. “The students are very excited about the new curriculum. It’s allowing them to actually work with the ideas they’re learning about, and to apply them as they look for solutions to these hypothetical, but real life, problems.”

###