STEM challenge is no yoke

STERLING HEIGHTS/WARREN — Rachael Gurjack, an elementary-level STEM teacher in the Warren Consolidated Schools district, is always finding ways to get the students engaged in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

She teaches STEM to students at Jefferson Elementary School in Sterling Heights and Green Acres Elementary School in Warren. The students, from transition kindergarten to fifth grade, have STEM class once a week for a 40-minute session.

“They can think outside of the box, get creative and become engaged,” Gurjack said. “I’m thrilled to be in a district that promotes STEM learning at the elementary level. Everything is technology driven. That’s where the jobs are going to be.”

On Feb. 25, several Jefferson classes got a closer look at STEM when robotics team members from Cousino High School and the district’s Macomb Mathematics Science Technology Center visited to do a STEM challenge. The MMSTC students attend school for a half day at the Butcher Educational Center, in Warren, and then attend the other half of the day at their home school.

There are two robotics teams between the two high schools: the Steel Armadillos, Team No. 818, which has more experienced team members, and the Steel Vipers, Team No. 9558, with newer robotics members. They visited with the Jefferson students in morning and afternoon sessions.

When the students in Kerry Calcaterra’s third and fourth grade split came into the gymnasium Feb. 25, the high school students began the visit talking about their robotics teams. Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation and application of robots.

Case Dattolo, a senior at Warren Woods Tower High School and an MMSTC student, explained that the teams are involved with FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, an international youth organization founded in 1989. There are different levels of FIRST. The high school students at last week’s challenge are in the FRC, which stands for First Robotics Competition.

“We build really big robots to complete very complex games and work with other teams to achieve a goal,” Dattolo said. “We have been statewide champions a couple times. We were international finalists once. We’ve won a bunch of awards from FIRST.”

“Every year, every robotics team is given a new game, which means new goals to achieve and new rules to follow,” Cousino junior and Steel Armadillos team captain Savannah Lossia said.

This year’s FIRST game for the high school teams is called “Reefscape.”

“It’s a water game based on coral reefs and algae and trying to keep the ocean sanitary and clean,” Lossia said. “Every year, high school teams across the entire world come together and try to build a robot that helps achieve the goals of the game. We work with each other. We work with mentors on other teams. We work with other students on other teams to create a robot that is the best we can make it.”

The Jefferson students were then broken down into six groups to do their own STEM challenge, called “The Egg Drop Competition.” Each team was given an egg, yarn, cotton balls, pipe cleaners and a plastic baggie. The goal was to wrap the egg in all of the supplies to make a cradle or nest for it.

The elementary students had 15 minutes to build. Once that was completed, the teams gathered for the challenge, in which the high school students placed an aluminum tray on the gymnasium floor. Measuring a 4-foot distance, the high school students dropped each egg one by one onto the tray to see if the eggs would crack or not.

All of the eggs cracked but one. Team members consisting of fourth graders King Hoskins, Rayan Kadir and and third grader Cassandra Toma won the challenge because their egg stayed intact. Toma was “excited” to win and Kadir felt “good.” For their victory, they each received a handmade bracelet Lossia made.