North Hills Junior High Students Create Environmentally Friendly Robots in K'Nex Challenge

North Hills Junior High students recently participated in the 2013 K'Nex Challenge Competition sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific at Duquesne University.

Students from more than 32 school districts were challenged to design and create an environmentally friendly robot which consisted of two motors.

Seventh-grade students Michael Benko and Nathan Shearer designed the Garbage Grabber. Their intentions were to create a robot that could quickly remove the garbage off the streets of a large metropolis such as New York City to help alleviate traffic. 

• For more news about the North Hills School District, check out our school news topic page.

Eighth-grade students Michael Knochel, Eric Crownover and Zach Hood designed the Reforester. The Reforester is a robot that flies like a helicoptor and drives like a mulching plow.The design allowed for the robot to fly into areas such as the remnants of a California forest fire and clean up the debris, while aerating the soil and planting fresh seed. 

A total of 24 Thermo Fisher Scientific scientists served as judges. The contestants were judged on creative and thoughtful use of the design, a grammatically correct written narrative, a detailed blueprint, successful teamwork and five-minute, oral presentation.

Follow us on Twitter | Like us on Facebook

Check out some of today's other top stories here .