St. A’s Shines at NJIT’s first eSTEM Competition

Saint Augustine of Canterbury School in Kendall Park was awarded the Gold Trophy for their overall First Place finish at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Center for Pre-College Program’s inaugural Elementary STEM (eSTEM) Competition for students in grades 3 to 5. The St. A’s team, nicknamed “SASolar” (pronounced S-A-Solar) and composed of 5 fifth graders and 1 fourth grader plus teacher/coaches Erin Falk and Debra Knox, also received a First Place medal for Engineering Design and Second Place medals for Oral Presentation, Engineering Logbooks, and Kahoot! Challenge during the virtual awards ceremony on Saturday, April 17, 2021.

The challenge for this first eSTEM Competition asked participating teams to utilize the engineering design process to research, design, and build a solar oven capable of heating a set amount of water without using any additional heat sources, solar panels, mirrors, or ready-made kits. Teams were provided with a list of approved materials that they could use in the construction of their solar oven and were encouraged to use recycled or “green” materials wherever possible. Students were also required to keep an engineering logbook detailing their design process, give a presentation on their final design, and participate in a Kahoot! Challenge to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of solar energy and the engineering design process. Each of these elements contributed to the team’s overall score. The competition officially began on March 1st with the unveiling of the design challenge by the eSTEM team. In all, fifteen teams from New Jersey elementary schools entered the competition with a total participation of over 75 students. Each team was assigned an NJIT student mentor to answer questions and provide feedback throughout the build process. Teams were asked to meet at least once per week in order to be able to deliver their solar ovens and engineering logbooks to the NJIT judges by April 13th.

For their winning entry, St. Augustine’s “SASolar” team chose to build their solar oven using common household items and recycled items found in the school’s Makerspace in order to be as environmentally friendly as possible. The base was assembled out of black foam blocks and the oven enclosure was made from cardboard lined on the outside with heat-absorbing black plastic bag material and on the inside with sheets of light-reflective Mylar and aluminum foil. The lid of the enclosure is held open by an adjustable bracket made from popsicle sticks, and the opening is covered with clear plastic wrap to trap all of the heat. Inside the oven, the measuring cup with the required 120 ml of water was secured to a tray made from modeling clay and covered with black plastic bag material. A thermometer was suspended above the measuring cup by an ingenious apparatus made from the top of a plastic soda bottle and thin strips of recycled plywood that allowed the probe to measure the temperature of the water without touching the bottom or sides of the cup. To finish off the design, the students added 3D printed wheels and “headlights” to turn their oven into a Solar Rover - an homage to the NASA Mars rover Perseverance that they have been studying in class. In the end, the Solar Rover did its job very well, raising the temperature of the water by over 30 degrees Fahrenheit!

Teamwork and collaboration were the keys to the team’s success. At each meeting, the students worked as a group to analyze the problems they needed to solve, formulate a plan to solve them, and test to see if their solutions worked. They were also able to bring their individual gifts and talents to the table when called upon to help the team. Whether it was modeling the 3D printed parts in Tinkercad, coming up with creative solutions to unforeseen challenges, assembling the various components of the solar oven, or collecting and presenting the test data, every student was able to put a little bit of themselves into the final product. Fifth grader, Isak K. said of the experience, “I witnessed cardboard scraps and other materials become something incredible. I learned so much about solar energy and 3D printing. I tried my best and enjoyed the challenge.” Fellow fifth grader Kendrick M. reflected that, “It was nice to have people that shared the same interests as me” on the team. Sophina B. in fourth grade summed it up best: “What I liked most about what we achieved was after all our hard work and teamwork, it paid off.” Somewhere on Mars, Perseverance and Ingenuity are smiling.