By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Fifth-graders at Lincoln Trail Elementary are continuing to show that no project is too big to tackle.
In January, the nine fifth-grade classes at the State Street school began to work independently on the design and creation of a machine that would be demonstrated and judged at a Rube Goldberg competition at the University of Illinois.
From start to finish, the classes had six weeks of preparation time.
The Mahomet-Seymour classrooms not only competed against each other, but also against students from numerous other area elementary schools.
The top three placers qualified for an event that will be held on campus Friday in conjunction with the annual University of Illinois Engineering Open House.
Lincoln Trail classes, taught by James Heinold and Sandy Prather, secured the top two positions and will be joined later this week by a classroom from Champaign’s Holy Cross School from the local regional.
At this week’s event, the leaders from five different regionals (15 total qualifiers) will be judged and evaluated once again.
Each group was given the same set of criteria at the outset.
“This year, each machine had to have an object orbit something else three times,” Prather said. “In addition to the final step, the rube has to include at least 10 simple machines.”
It’s up to the imagination of the students, who were mentored by persons with engineering backgrounds, as to what direction they went with the project.
“My class decided to make our machine a playground theme,” Prather said. “We thought we could incorporate tether ball as our orbiting object. We called it Lincoln View Park.
“They painted our rube, decorated it and made flyers to pass out the day of the competition.”
The students receive plenty of instruction, support and encouragement.
“All of the work is done under the guidance of community and parent volunteers that are engineers or have building/engineering-type interests,” Prather said. “This is the key to the program. The volunteers come in and work with the whole class and small groups of kids.
“They take the kids’ ideas and help facilitate conversations to problem-solve constraints that are in front of them.”
Prather’s 28-student class was divided into six groups, each, she said, “assigned to build about two steps.”
No group was left unsupervised.
“Parent volunteers, teachers, and our engineer volunteers worked with each of the groups,” Prather said. “Every child in my room was part of the brainstorming and building process.
“It was important to me that every child be able to say with confidence that they were an integral part of their creation. I think this is part of what made my project successful.”
This year was the third for Lincoln Trail students to have participated in the Rube Goldberg project and the second in a row that Prather’s class has advanced to the finals.
“The judges look for a high level of student involvement during the competition,” Prather said. “The teachers and adult volunteers sit in the audience.
“They help carry the rube up to the stage and then they let the kids do the rest. The kids run through their speech, introductions, and then run the machine twice.
“This has to be done within a 10-minute time period. Our rube ran twice without any touches or fixes needed.”
The cost of the project didn’t affect the Lincoln Trail budget.
“There is so much value packed into the entire project with absolutely no cost to the district,” Prather said. “Kirchner Lumber graciously donated the bases and sides for each of the nine fifth-grade classrooms.
“I also made a trip or two to Lowes. They were very kind to donate scraps of material and display pieces that might have been cracked or broken.
“Otherwise, everything used in the building of the rubes are literally ‘stuff’ from home that the kids bring in.”
The total project encompasses more than the ability to grasp engineering and physics concepts to produce a functional machine.
“Other aspects that make this such a valuable program is the integration of other learning opportunities,” Prather said. “All of this is lined out in the information that we were given at the beginning of January.
“The kids are required to turn in a one-page research paper. The topic this year was Apollo 8.
“They must turn in a journal. My students provided drawings and conceptual ideas that they had as the project developed. They also have to incorporate three scientific or mathematical equations that apply to the running of their machine.”
The M-S Parent Teacher Organization provided T-shirts for all of the Lincoln Trail fifth-graders.
“Our amazing PTO and our PTO parent volunteer Tandra Wisnasky has been an integral part of this program since we started,” Prather said. “She finds our engineers and organizes a time with Monte Cherry (who oversees the Goldberg competition) to meet with the engineers and explain the program to them.“
Daniel Perkins is among the engineers who worked with Prather’s class.
Additionally, Justin Lamb, Susan Christensen, Elliott Lagacy, Prather’s student teacher, Madeline Musnicki, and Herschel Paden donated their time, talents and power tools skills to the 5E classroom.
“Our engineer came in at least once a week,” Prather said. “Justin Lamb would come in to work with the kids on additional days when necessary.
“They would typically come in after lunch until the end of the day. I have not calculated the actual time spent as the entire project spans curricular areas. We are very grateful to all of them.”
Friday’s competition is part of the Engineer in the Classroom program. It will be held at the UI’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Building, on Wright Street, starting at 9 a.m..
“My students are very excited to now move on to the last level of competition,” Prather said.
Great Article!